Immortal Beloved
by CritterWhisperer
Summary: New blood joins Inuyasha's gang in the form of a foreign witch in search of redemption. What she finds is a group of loyal friends and possible love, if she and Sesshoumaru can put fears and pride aside. -Starts out slow, but I try to keep it interesting.
1. Prologue

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_Summary: Having loved and lost, is it possible to love again? When faced with one who is an equal in power, can one set aside pride to allow love? New blood joins Inuyasha's group in the form of a foreign witch in search of redemption. Her meddlesome ways may be what the group needs to learn to defeat Naraku and destroy the Shikon Jewel, as well as get two brothers to see eye to eye. And perhaps she will earn her own reward. SessxOC, InuxKag, MirxSang._

_Author's Note: Hey to all who were curious enough to read this. I have been toying with this story for a couple of years now and have decided to publish it as an incentive to finish it one day. Maybe then it will stop bouncing around in my head. I will be honest and say that I have not kept up with the manga. I have read up to the point where Sesshoumaru learns that Tenseiga is meant to be part of Tetsusaiga and I know that he manages to regenerate his arm and create a new sword._

_As far as my story goes, it begins around the time when Kagura dies, but before Tokijin breaks. Of course, I will take a few liberties here and there to direct the story where I want it, and maybe be able to work in some events that occurred later in the manga. Although this story is not categorized as such, it is a crossover with Harry Potter, in the sense that I used magical spells and information about magical creatures from those books. The influence of _The Mists of Avalon_ and _Merlin_ are also clear throughout, which stands to reason because my OC is an English witch. So . . . enough of my rambling._

**Disclaimer:** If I had an original thought in my head, I would publish it for money instead of writing fanfiction. That being said . . . I do not own Inuyasha or any of its characters, nor do I own Harry Potter, Merlin, The Mists of Avalon, or any other works that I may reference without realizing it.

The late afternoon sun filtered through the dense foliage of the forest, forming golden patches of light on the forest floor. A young woman walked serenely through the forest; her alabaster skin seemed to glow in the sunlight. Her long, red-gold hair blew back as she walked and made a striking contrast to the emerald-green, velvet robe that she wore. It had embroidery – interlocking knots of Celtic origin – along the hems of the sleeves, down the front and along the bottom hem.

A single clasp held it closed at her bust line – a bronze brooch intricately carved into a sun-moon symbol, where it appeared that a crescent moon overlaid a sun. Half of the face of the sun and half of the face of the moon were visible, forming a complete face between the two and giving an impression that the two symbols were fighting for dominance over the whole. To the philosophical and knowledgeable eye, this would appear to be a hint to the torn soul of the brooch's wearer.

The rest of the robe was open, revealing the purple and black clothing underneath. She wore a leather belt that appeared to wrap around her twice, once at the waist and again, slanting downward to her left hip. Attached to this belt, but hidden from sight by the robe was an old English sword that was intricately carved with Celtic knots and a large garnet adorned the pommel.

As the woman walked, her deep-blue eyes darted from one side to the other in search of her prey. Occasionally she got the distinct feeling that someone was watching her. She felt a presence and thought she caught a scent once in a while. It seemed familiar to her, but she could not place it. After a while, she decided that she didn't care. Whatever it was – if malevolent – she could take care of herself. But since it did not seem to want to attack her, she did not concern herself with it. She focused on the task at hand. After all, she was hungry.

Eventually, she caught sight of a wild pig. She dashed for the animal and had it in her grasp in an instant. The poor thing didn't even know what had happened until it was too late. She soothingly stroked the animal's head while she summed up its size and decided how much blood the animal could lose without being too weakened.

_Perhaps I should just kill it and take it back to Inuyasha and the others_. She thought to herself. Then she thought against it – Kagome probably already had some food for them and preparing a hog would have been more trouble than it was worth. There was no point to killing the animal if it wasn't going to be put to full use.

She reached into a small leather pouch attached to her belt and pulled out a small bottle. As she held it, it grew to the size of a wine bottle. She held it up to the light and saw that it was about two-thirds full. _This hog should fill it up_.

She uncorked the bottle and set it on the ground beneath the hog's neck. She then drew her sword and drove it through the animal's neck, so that the tip of the sword came out the other side and was just above the opening of the bottle. It would have been expected that the pig would have squealed and tried to free itself, but it remained still and appeared to feel no pain. Blood ran down to the tip of the blade and dripped into the bottle.

After a few minutes, the woman removed the sword. The wound that the sword had inflicted on the animal immediately disappeared. She picked up the bottle and allowed the hog to run free, apparently unharmed, if not a little confused.

She held the bottle up to the light again and sighed. It had taken three pigs to fill it up, but that was only because she had not wished to kill any of them. Normally, she did not even wish to drink pig's blood. Naturally, she had cravings for blood, especially humans'. But she had stopped that long ago – and she had the will power to fight the cravings. Unlike her nocturnal brethren, she did not even need blood to live. She had been graced with the ability to gain the same nutrition from normal human food. However, it could not be denied that blood kept her stronger and healthier than normal food. It is for that reason alone that she was drinking it now – she needed all the strength she could get. That, and it was her usual practice to live off the blood of wild animals whenever she traveled in unfamiliar lands. The vampire – as this she was, in a way – sheathed her sword and carried her flask toward the sound of rushing water. She decided that she would have her "meal" next to a river.

All of the time that the woman had been hunting pigs and filling her flask, a pair of golden eyes had been watching her from afar. These eyes belonged to a youkai who sat in a tree, leaning against the tree's trunk, unmoving. If it had not been for a slight breeze blowing through his long, silver hair, one would have thought that he was a statue. His face showed no expression as he watched the woman, but that was only a mask that hid his curiosity and slight confusion about the woman. As he watched her leave, he stood up, trying to decide whether he should follow her or not. _Why am I even watching this woman? Is it her strange appearance and behavior? Or is it that she may not be what she seems – a normal human woman?_

He began to think about that morning, when he first "met" this woman that had managed to catch his attention. What was it Inuyasha and the others had called her? Something that sounded strange, maybe foreign – Elizabeth. Yes, that was it.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

_Earlier that day . . ._

The daiyoukai had not intended to run into his brother and his friends, but occasionally, it happens, to his dismay. After all, they were both after Naraku, so sometimes it was unavoidable that they would cross paths. When he came across him today, Inuyasha already seemed agitated – of course, when wasn't he?

Inuyasha was in the midst of battling a large number of demons when the daiyoukai appeared. It was the presence of these demons that had brought him to this area in the first place, despite the fact that he could smell Inuyasha's scent. Perhaps he thought it would be amusing to watch Inuyasha getting his ass handed to him by one demon or another. Unfortunately, when he got there, he immediately saw that Inuyasha was battling a mass number of weaker youkai that even his pitiful, half-breed brother should be able to handle without any trouble.

He heard a feminine voice with a strange accent saying something about a lost cause and that Inuyasha should just give up for the day. He also noticed a new scent among Inuyasha's group and he spared a glance over to the hanyou's friends standing a good sixty feet away. He saw that a pale woman, clad in green and leaning against a tree with her arms crossed over her chest, had joined his brother's group. It mattered little to him and he was about to turn around and walk away when he saw her gaze snap from the hanyou to stare directly toward him as she pushed herself away from the tree in a fluid, he couldn't help but notice, sensual motion to stand up straight, never uncrossing her arms in the process. Apparently everyone else had been too immersed in watching the hanyou that they did not notice his approach.

The woman called attention to his presence, speaking in the strange accent he had heard before, "What's this here? Who is this fellow?" She didn't seem to direct the question to anyone in particular. Was it her accent, or did she seem to have a lecherous tone to her voice?

He then heard the strange miko reply, "That's Sesshoumaru, Inuyasha's older, half-brother. We told you about him. He's a full-blooded demon, unlike Inuyasha. They don't really get along with each other."

"That's an understatement, Kagome," stated the demon slayer, Sango. "Every time they meet, they try to kill each other."

As if on cue, Inuyasha bellowed, "Sesshoumaru, what are you doing here? Lookin' for a fight?"

The daiyoukai returned his gaze to his brother and stepped into the clearing. He fixed his characteristic, cold stare on Inuyasha, "Why should I waste my time with you half-breed? You are hardly any match against me."

Angered by this, Inuyasha charged at Sesshoumaru with his Tetsusaiga. Sesshoumaru dodged with little effort. Then he heard the woman again, an amused tone in her voice, "So I see. Well then, who better for Inuyasha to spar with?" She then added more seriously, "has he ever transformed while fighting . . . uhh . . .Sesshoumaru?"

"Yes," Miroku responded. "Sesshoumaru might have even managed to kill him if we hadn't gotten Inuyasha out of there."

"Hey, I'm right here and can hear every word you say, you idiot!" Inuyasha shouted.

"Well, it's the truth!" shouted Shippou, happy that he could rub Inuyasha's nose in that embarrassing fact.

The woman, ignoring the petty bickering, went on to say, "Then it is most likely that if they fight again and Inuyasha finds himself in a losing position . . ."

"What did you say?" Inuyasha shouted, waving his sword angrily. "As if I would lose to this arrogant son-of-a-bitch!"

"Apparently you have before, or did you not hear that part of our conversation? Do we have to repeat it?" She asked in a bored, but slightly mocking tone. Sesshoumaru nearly had to stifle a smirk at the woman's comments. He did not know what her purpose was for wanting him and Inuyasha to "spar," or for Inuyasha to transform, but his interest was piqued. Besides, today just might be the day that he would kill Inuyasha, forever removing that thorn from his side.

"If you are going to challenge someone to a fight, Inuyasha, at least have the sense not to let your guard down." He leaped toward his younger brother, not even bothering to draw his own sword, Tokijin. Inuyasha quickly turned to face his brother and jumped out of the way of his green whip.

Elizabeth leaned back against the tree, watching the scene with a serious expression and comparing Inuyasha's fighting to his brother's. She was very impressed with the daiyoukai – he blocked Inuyasha's attacks with absolutely no effort. He had incredible speed and moved with such grace that, by comparison, he made Inuyasha look even more the savage that he normally behaved as.

She soon found that her gaze had focused on the gorgeous demon, studying his moves, but also letting a few lecherous thoughts cross her mind – there is nothing wrong with having a little fun while working. She absentmindedly brought a hand up to her mouth, gently biting down on her thumbnail as she eyed the demon like a piece of meat that she wanted to sink her teeth into. Miroku must have noticed the gleam in her eye, having often had the same gleam in his own eye when around beautiful women.

"Elizabeth, are you alright?"

Without changing the direction of her gaze she spoke with an almost sultry voice, "I'm fine. I just . . . like the way he moves. Such grace . . . such skill. No wonder Inuyasha has difficulty defeating him. I bet he isn't even putting forth his best effort." The rest of the audience turned to look at Elizabeth with shocked expressions. Had she just complemented Sesshoumaru?

She had not spoken these comments very loudly, but she suspected that the brothers had heard her. She had spoken her honest thoughts – she was never one to feel ashamed for giving praise where praise was due, be it admiring a handsome man or a skillful fighter. In this case, she had the good fortune to do both. What was more, if they heard her, she could observe their reactions. She was pleased when she got the expected results.

Despite her comments, Sesshoumaru had not even spared a glance in her direction, keeping his focus on the task at hand, but he had definitely heard her. Of that she was sure because Inuyasha had heard her and it stood to reason that the daiyoukai's hearing was better than his brother's. _And so disciplined, as I expected._ Inuyasha, on the other hand, turned toward the group and started yelling at Elizabeth.

"We can hear you, you know! Do you think you could stop drooling over my brother and insulting me at the same time?"

"Sticks and stones, luv. You are letting a few silly words distract you, while your brother didn't even so much as flinch. You'll get yourself killed doing that." She stated calmly as she watched Inuyasha narrowly miss another attack.

"Then how about you shut up, unless you want to get into a fight with me, too?"

"I am only an observer. Of course if you would transform already, I wouldn't have to heckle you."

"You know damned well that I can't transform on command!"

"Then throw your sword aside and fight with your bare claws and let Sesshoumaru beat you to within an inch of your life. Whatever it takes. Just see if you can beat The Second Coming of Christ." She hastily made the sign of the Cross over herself while the others stared at her questioningly.

"The what?" Miroku asked.

"It just means to hurry up." Kagome interpreted the phrase.

"You want me to throw aside the sword? How about I throw it at your head?" With that Inuyasha hurled the sword directly at Elizabeth. She gracefully ducked as the sword hit the tree a few feet above her head, embedding itself half-way into the tree and transformed back to its battered, rusty form. She stood up straight and looked up at the sword, letting out a short chuckle at this outburst.

"Brash," was all Miroku could say while shaking his head in disappointment.

"He really is going to get a beating now," Shippou chimed in.

"Elizabeth," Kagome whispered in an anxious voice, "how are we going to stop Inuyasha from getting killed?"

"Are all of you ganging up on me now? You think I can't beat this asshole without my sword." Kagome put a hand over her mouth, wishing she had not spoken. Actually, wishing that Inuyasha had not heard her – she really was worried that Sesshoumaru was going to kill him. She had seen him fight Sesshoumaru hand-to-hand . . . and it did not go well for Inuyasha.

Inuyasha was continuing to get more furious, his attacks becoming wilder and less effective, while Sesshoumaru remained calm and collected. In all truth, Sesshoumaru was mentally laughing at his idiot brother. He had at first been irritated with the woman's remarks – sure she had complemented him, but she also seemed to speak in a tone that just seemed too liberal when speaking of someone of his stature. He soon let that go as he realized that this was a truly comical scene – the way Inuyasha let that woman get to him, even when she had openly admitted that she was doing it on purpose. The hanyou really had no control. Sesshoumaru decided to oblige the suggestion of quickly beating Inuyasha to within an inch of his life, if not completely kill him.

"That was a foolish move."

He had long since been fighting with Tokijin and was not about to put it away because his brother had been stupid enough to willingly disarm himself. He made a few strikes at Inuyasha, who managed to dodge, although just barely. He made another strong blow and managed to scathe Inuyasha's arm. This blow must have been the thing to push Inuyasha over the edge.

Inuyasha had jumped far away and was very still. Suddenly, Inuyasha's scent changed and Sesshoumaru immediately tensed, ready to fight the beast that was soon to attack. Elizabeth had been leaning against the tree again, watching with amusement when she caught the change in Inuyasha's blood. She pushed herself away from the tree, intent on watching Inuyasha now that he had transformed and wanting to be ready to stop the fight before it got too far.

Inuyasha attacked Sesshoumaru. With the short fight that ensued, it was clear that Inuyasha had become more of a challenge. What was even worse was that he did not seem to feel any pain when injured or hit, not that he was receiving any major injuries. He just kept attacking and it seemed that he would continue to do so until he was killed or subdued in some other way. After she felt she had observed enough of his demonic state, Elizabeth decided to act before Sesshoumaru tired of the fight and decided to end it in his own way.

"Whatever happens, do not interfere," she addressed the group of friends as she started walking toward the feuding brothers, ignoring the protests of the others. She wanted to end the fight, but also wanted to learn one more thing – could he change back without the help of Tetsusaiga?

"Elizabeth, what are you doing?" Kagome yelled. Sesshoumaru had heard the protests as well, but did not pay attention to what the woman might be doing – he was concerned with the wild hanyou in front of him.

The two brothers were standing about ten feet away from each other and Inuyasha was just beginning to make a leaping attack when Elizabeth seemed to appear out of no where, grabbing his arm and twirling him around in a violent swing-your-partner kind of move to make him face the opposite direction and forcing him to stop. Sesshoumaru had been stunned to see the woman appear out of no where and have the strength to pull the hanyou out of his attack – she was just a human woman, after all, or so she seemed to be, judging from her sent. He froze in place to watch the exchange between the woman and the hanyou.

The woman had not removed her hand from Inuyasha's arm and she had turned him to face her. "That's enough now, Inuyasha." She stated with a firm, calm voice. She showed no fear of the creature she was holding. In fact, she seemed to be closely studying the red eyes, elongated fangs, and jagged magenta stripes that had appeared on his face. How was that possible? Even Sesshoumaru admitted to himself that he had felt the slightest bit of fear the first time he witnessed Inuyasha's transformation. Of course, now he didn't fear him, but he did know that the transformed hanyou was nothing for a human to trifle with.

For a second, nothing happened. Perhaps even the wild hanyou was stunned by this woman. Then suddenly, Inuyasha let out a low, crazed growl. "Let go of me, bitch!" He slashed at Elizabeth's left arm, the arm that restrained his left arm, leaving four red slashes in the wake of his claws. She reflexively released his arm – the only sign that showed that she registered the injury, since no sign of pain crossed her features. Inuyasha then lifted his freed arm and slashed across the right side of her face.

Elizabeth snapped her head to the left, but showed no sign of feeling pain. She snapped her head back to face Inuyasha then glanced down at her arm while she raised her right hand to her face, feeling the blood trickling from the deep wounds. She was not concerned about the wounds – they were superficial and were already beginning to heal. She kept her eyes trained on Inuyasha, watching his reaction. He seemed to be struggling with himself after this outburst, but after a few moments, he raised his right hand to make another attack. She blocked it with her left hand and she brought her right across his face in a backhanded slap.

"Bad dog!" She said her voice louder, but still calm and firm as if she were paper training the hanyou instead of subduing him from going on a killing spree. The force of the blow knocked Inuyasha unconscious and he fell to the ground in an undignified heap. She stared down at the hanyou and looked up as she heard the others calling her as they ran up to the scene, stopping at a safe distance and casting wary glances at Inuyasha and the demon lord, who stood silent and still, observing Inuyasha and the strange woman.

"Elizabeth, are you alright? What about Inuyasha?"

"We're fine. Do you have his sword?"

"Um . . . it's still stuck in the tree. We couldn't pry it out."

"That's fine. If need be, we'll take him to it." She knelt down and grabbed Inuyasha's chin, turning his face up so she could see it. The purple marks had disappeared. She took that as a sign that he had returned to normal. She lightly slapped his face to bring him around.

Inuyasha groggily opened his eyes, feeling an intense pain on his right cheek, wondering what had happened. The last real, coherent thought he had had was when he flung his sword at Elizabeth, angry about the remarks she had been making. He looked up and saw the face of that very woman, but it was smeared with blood on one side, deep scratches being the source. Suddenly he was afraid of what might have happened.

"Elizabeth? Did . . . did I do that to you? Where are the others?" He began looking around, panic in his eyes. How could he live with himself if he had killed his friends? He was visibly relieved when he saw them standing a short distance away.

"Yes, but don't worry about it. You hesitated before doing it – that's a promising sign. Of course, I was obliged to give you a good smack for it, anyways." She said with a slight smirk.

Despite what the woman had said, Inuyasha still had a worried expression. After all, he had attacked someone that was part of his group – an ally. It was his worst fear that he would turn on the few people who trusted him. "I'm . . . sorry."

"I said don't worry about it." She continued as if she understood what the hanyou was thinking. "It's not like you randomly attacked me. You probably only did it because you were angry with me and because I got in your way of the fight."

She stood up and Inuyasha slowly followed her lead. "I think that is enough fighting for you today. Perhaps you should fetch your sword from the tree."

Inuyasha cast a sidelong glance toward Sesshoumaru, wondering briefly why he was still there and not trying to kill anyone, and began walking toward the rest of the group, which also was in the direction of said tree. He still looked very troubled despite the comforting words that Elizabeth had offered.

_He has a long way to go. First and foremost, he needs to learn to keep his head in battle. _Elizabeth thought as she watched the hanyou. She then turned her attention to the silent daiyoukai standing a few feet away. She made no attempt to hide the fact that she was looking him up and down, but showed no indication of what she was thinking about what she saw. Elizabeth found that the demon was even more handsome up close than he had been from a distance. She guessed that he must have been at least six feet tall, about a head taller than she was, and he held himself with a regal air, providing the illusion that he was even taller. His red and white clothing was made of some of the finest cloth and his armor was well-made. She saw that he had two swords, one of which he still held in his hand, and the other was tucked in a blue and gold sash around his waist.

His silver, knee-length hair then caught her attention. Just like Inuyasha's, but lighter. _Like moonbeams_. She thought to herself as her eyes followed it up to his head and temporarily locked on the cold, golden eyes that stared at her. _Those are just like Inuyasha's as well, except with a much colder expression._ She then took in the features of his face – masculine, yet delicate features that were very attractive and appeared as if they had been carved out of marble and accented with the purple stripes on his cheeks. She then moved her gaze up to the crescent moon on his forehead, flanked with silvery bangs. His overall appearance in the same colors as her own family's livery and the moon symbol brought back a sudden flash of bitter nostalgia that she repressed quickly. _The waning moon. I wonder what its significance is? A mark of station? Clearly he is no commoner._

She brought her gaze back to meet the eyes of the daiyoukai and gave him a slight bow of the head as a gesture of respect and thanks, but also keeping an air about herself that suggested she was only showing courtesy to an equal. "I thank you for your assistance, whether you meant to provide it or not. I believe Inuyasha has had enough fighting for today." She glanced to the sword in Sesshoumaru's hand, snapping him out of his own thoughts.

He had been making his own observations about the strange woman in green. He had already observed her pale skin and strange hair color. He had studied her clothing and the strange symbols on her cloak – his attention resting briefly on the brooch she wore. His eyes lingered just long enough to get a mental image of it and he began to wonder what significance it was supposed to have. It was not until she looked him directly in the eyes that he saw that her eyes were a striking deep blue with a line of black outlining her irises. If she had not smelled like a human, he would have been sure that she was a demon of some sort. It may have been possible that she was maybe a quarter demon, but even then, he would have been able to sense that little bit of demon blood. However, he could also tell that her wounds were healing immediately, much like a demon. There was something very strange about this woman.

She looked him in the eye and showed no fear, but she seemed to recognize that he was of a noble stature. That was evident in her courteous gesture as she finally spoke to him – that was exactly what it was, courteous, as if she viewed herself as his equal. He almost did not register what she had said to him until her gaze locked onto his sword. He quickly realized what she had said and for reasons unknown to himself, decided to oblige her and sheathed Tokijin.

Elizabeth watched as the sword moved back to its place by its master's side and noticed that his left sleeve was empty. She gave a small smile, meeting his eyes again and giving another nod before turning to join the rest of her companions. _Overall, he is a masterpiece. A real work of art . . . well . . . a marred piece of art. What a shame that he is missing an arm._

Sesshoumaru remained still as he watched her walk to the strange group. He noticed her relaxed manner of walking – swaying her hips in a manner that one could expect of prostitutes. Yet the way she carried her form and her manner of speaking spoke of refinement – perhaps she was of some sort of noble blood. _She is not what she seems. Who and what is she?_ His curiosity piqued, he would have to find out, but it could wait until later. Silently he left the clearing. He would return later and find an opportune time to observe the woman better. That time came in the afternoon, when she wandered off into the woods alone.


	2. The Punished

**Disclaimer:** If I had an original thought in my head, I would publish it for money instead of writing fanfiction. That being said . . . I do not own Inuyasha or any of its characters, nor do I own Harry Potter, Merlin, The Mists of Avalon, or any other works that I may reference without realizing it.

Elizabeth sat on the riverbank, staring across the river with unfocused, thoughtful eyes. She had relaxed slightly, having noticed that the unidentified presence she had felt earlier had seemed to stop following her. She could still sense it, but it was not as near as it had been; apparently it had stayed roughly in the area where she had caught that last pig.

She took one last swig from her flask, draining it of the last of the blood she had collected. Thoughtfully, she stared at the bottle. It really was an ingenious bit of magic to put a spell on the bottle so that it kept blood warm at body temperature. Blood cooled so quickly after leaving a body and then it was just unbearable to drink.

In general, animal blood wasn't the best-tasting and she wondered to herself why she didn't eat normal human food. Immediately she answered her own question – blood, be it human or pig, gives her more strength than normal food. She definitely needed as much strength as she could muster.

She was traveling in a land where unfamiliar, powerful, and dangerous magical creatures ran wild and affected everyday life. Well, not all of the creatures were unfamiliar to her, but she needed to be prepared for anything. Elizabeth lingered on this thought, wondering why magic was part of the everyday in this land. She had traveled the world many times over and had found that in most of the world, magic played a large role – although it may not have been thought of as magic by those who used it. They often treated it as spiritual power that could only be used by holy people – monks and priestesses. Maybe that is why magic persisted in these parts of the world.

She sighed, remembering her homeland when she was younger. Things had changed a lot since then. Magic had a role in everyday life back then as well. That was before the invasion of Christianity. Magical and non-magical folk lived side-by-side, fully aware of each other. Unfortunately, the magical and non-magical worlds of Europe split long ago. Magical folk used spells to hide themselves from the non-magical world, and as the centuries trudged on, they became little more than myths and legends – fairy stories.

The British Isles, her home, had an especially strong reputation for folklore about fairies, leprechauns, dragons, and wizards. Probably anyone in England could rattle out some legend about Camelot, King Arthur, Merlin, and the famous sword, Excalibur. Elizabeth smiled; she had even heard a version where Merlin the Magician had built the mysterious stone circle, Stonehenge. But these legends were just that to most people – legends. Unconsciously, Elizabeth laid a hand on the hilt of the sword lying next to her and smiled – no, they were all far from being just legends.

_Well, Merlin, I guess that is one of the two ways that all living creatures truly gain immortality – either their blood lives on through their descendants, or they live on in legend. In a way, you are just as immortal as me. Of course that did not make it any less painful when you died._ She thought to herself._ Stop thinking about that! You made peace with it long ago._ She lied to herself. Try as she might, it still pained her sometimes and this was one of those times.

Merlin had been her anchor after a tumultuous period in her life. He helped her come to grips with the atrocious sins she had committed – so many of them – and had helped her find some happiness. She had loved him dearly, the first man she had ever truly loved. It wasn't to last – how could it? She was immortal and he was human. She always knew it would not last, but she was still unprepared for watching him age, his body deteriorating with every passing year. She had been by his side when he took his last breath.

In an effort to lessen her sadness, she kept hope that she would join him one day, in the afterlife. That was well over a thousand years ago. It seemed that she would never die – despite the number of times that others have tried to kill her. After the first couple of centuries, she began to believe that she was being punished – forced to outlive all loved ones and wander through the years, much like her father had before her; but even he found eternal rest in the end, or so she hoped his afterlife was peaceful. Eventually, she may serve out her punishment and leave this world, as well. She had to – only the gods were truly immortal, and she was no god. Everything that lives must die eventually. She just had to be patient. But the question that really stumped her was why she was born like this in the first place? What had she done in a previous life to demand such a harsh punishment as to be born as she was?

Thinking about her immortal punishment, she began to think about the horrible dreams that had been plaguing her recently. Sleep had been eluding her because of them – hence the additional need to pour pig's blood down her throat. They really hadn't been dreams – just memories of her bloody past that surfaced while she slept. In her mind's eye, Elizabeth could still picture slaughtered villagers lying everywhere, covered in blood. Others running – pointless – in order to escape her and her followers, a virtual army of vampires. She could still smell the blood covering the ground. Elizabeth thought of her husband and how he had been the catalyst that started all that destruction. No, she couldn't blame him for it. She always had the choice of what she did with her new-found power, but he had been the one to make her discover that power.

_Of all the crimes that I regret, killing that bastard will never be one of them_. She thought, with a look of determination crossing her features. He had been cruel to her – beating her and making her feel worthless, all because she had been unable to provide him with an heir. If Elizabeth had been the woman that she was today, she would not have stood for it for a single moment. But back in those days, she had no idea of what she was, and she had a strong sense of duty to her family and married the man that her family arranged for her to marry.

Trying to break away from the direction that her thoughts were taking her, Elizabeth glanced down at the bracelet on her left wrist – a heavy, bronze torc, whose ends were capped with Celtic-style wolf heads. _Wolves – the pathfinders, guiding me through life. So Merlin, where are the wolves leading me now? Why am I here in Japan?_

She began thinking of Inuyasha – he must be the reason. It cannot be just a coincidence that, at this point in his life, the young hanyou had found her just a few days ago. Elizabeth had recently fought some ugly demon that was terrorizing a village. She killed it to protect the people and had noticed a strange glowing among the demon's remains. It looked like a piece of quartz, but it glowed with a strange power. Her intuition told her that it should not be left out in the open for any other demons to get, so she tucked it away and went off to find a good place for a nap.

Unbeknown to her, she had found a piece of the Shikon no Tama, a sacred jewel that had been broken into pieces that had been scattered all over Japan and that Inuyasha and his group were searching the land over, trying to collect the pieces. The young miko in the group, Kagome, had sensed the jewel shard and that is how Inuyasha had come to find Elizabeth sleeping in a tree. The fool had jumped up to the high branch where she rested and, promptly, was thrown out of the tree. He was unharmed; his hard head broke his fall – that would teach him not to _ever_ wake her up again. Elizabeth isn't the most agreeable person when she first awakens, especially when an unknown person does the waking.

After that rocky introduction, Elizabeth had sort of joined his group, consisting of the young priestess (from 500 years in the future, no less), a lecherous monk, a female demon slayer, a fox demon, and a fire cat demon. It was Inuyasha that intrigued her. He was half human and half dog demon. As a result of this mixing of blood, he appeared nearly human, with the exception of having long silver hair, golden eyes, claws, and dog ears, instead of human ones. He also had greater strength and healing powers than most humans.

He reminded her of herself – a half vampire, half human. No such creature should exist – not that it is some abomination against nature, but because it should be impossible. Vampires do not reproduce in the same way as humans – they are the living dead, after all. Yet, she had a human mother and a vampire father. Having been in a similar situation as Inuyasha, Elizabeth felt understanding for his problems. Well . . . almost . . . she could easily fool people into believing that she was human. Inuyasha had no such luck and was treated cruelly for it as a child. The only discrimination she had received as a child was from her half-brother – no one else was wise to her half-human nature, not that anyone knew what it would have meant.

Among the information that she had gained from her new acquaintances, the most interesting had been about Inuyasha's sword, the Tetsusaiga, and how it controlled the powerful demon blood that flowed through his veins. On one occasion, the sword had broken and Inuyasha went out of control, completely losing himself to the demon. He became a killing machine, unable to differentiate between friend and foe. Clearly this was a problem if he ever lost his sword in battle.

The story reminded Elizabeth of her own 200-year rampage. Although she had always been fully aware of what she was doing, she was never able to stop herself. It took a miracle for her to gain control of herself again. Ever since then, she had trained herself to be able to use her "demonic" power, if that is what it could be called, to its utmost ability while still being in total control. In the course of 1300 years she had become the most powerful creature she had ever met, mastering both her demonic powers and her magical powers, inherited from her witch mother.

Now she felt that Fate had led her here to help Inuyasha master his own powers, making him less dependent on the sword and better able to defeat this Naraku character that they spoke of. Maybe that is why she had been having these dreams as well, reminding her of the consequences if she failed. _But how to go about training him._ She frowned. This would not be easy. That was evident from her first attempt earlier that day. She had wanted to at least see what Inuyasha was like when he was in his demon form, but, apparently, he had to be without his sword and near death before he transformed. He may have lacked style and discipline, but he was a strong fighter, so it proved difficult to make that happen. Maybe she should start with trying to teach him proper sword technique and other forms of combat, making him draw more from his demonic strength. She would think about that later.

Elizabeth looked up at the sun. It would be dark in a few hours. She would return to the group when it got dark and stand watch over them while they slept – it was a job for a nocturnal creature like herself. She decided to try to take a short nap, hoping that the dreams would leave her be.

She removed her cloak and rolled it up to use as a pillow. She unsheathed her sword and laid it on the ground to her right, making it easy to grab in an emergency. She lay on her back, interlocking her fingers and laying her hands on her stomach. Soon she drifted off to sleep, her peaceful expression showing that her dreams, if any, were far from the bloody images that had been plaguing her.

Sesshoumaru was still sitting in his tree, hesitating to follow the strange woman. She had seemed to notice his presence, even though she did not seem concerned enough to find him. He wasn't sure whether to be insulted about that or not. He still wasn't sure why he was about to follow her to see what she was going to do with all that blood.

So what if she seemed to display some unusual power or strength for a human woman? Sometimes things were not what they seemed. For all he knew, she was a demon who could mask her appearances and demonic power and scent. She could also turn out to be nothing more than some kind of priestess, but that would not explain her behavior.

Even from priestesses, Sesshoumaru could sense some amount of fear when in the presence of a daiyoukai such as himself. She, however, had stood no more than 5 feet away from him, stared him directly in the eyes, and showed no fear at all. In fact, she seemed totally unconcerned about his presence.

_Perhaps she has no fear of death. A wise human, in that case._ He thought. Then again, maybe she felt that he would not harm her merely because she had been complementing him while he had been fighting Inuyasha. Yes, she had seemed to have quite an appreciation for his fighting skill – of course, anyone with an understanding of combat would recognize skill when they saw it. But that should have made her all the more apprehensive about crossing him. _If that is the case, then she is a foolish woman._

Then Sesshoumaru thought about how Inuyasha had attacked her. She showed no sign of pain or shock when he had struck her. He smirked as he saw the image of that woman, giving Inuyasha a back-handed slap while saying "Bad dog!," replay in his memory.

Yes, this woman had piqued his curiosity – he was nothing if not curious – and he would have to observe her further. The great youkai gracefully, soundlessly leaped from one tree to another, heading in the direction the woman had gone. Soon he came to the river where he saw that the woman was lying on the ground, apparently asleep. He felt a little disappointment when he realized that she did not seem to be breathing and that he could not hear her heart beating.

_Perhaps I was giving this woman too much credit. She seems to be dead. But what killed her?_

Without making a sound, Sesshoumaru dropped to the ground and slowly walked to the woman. He knelt beside her to get a better look. Unconsciously, he looked over her body. Her clothing was strange – a sleeveless, black gown with purple darts running the length of the skirt. A panel of embellished black fabric ran down the front. Two slits ran up the side of the skirt to an indecent point at her hips, but she wore black leggings and mid-calf laced boots underneath the skirt. The low-cut, leather-reinforced bodice of the gown was laced up with black leather, accentuating her natural curves and, apparently, drawing attention to her ample breasts, pushing them up to form noticeable cleavage. Her cleavage was partially covered by the tight, black, long-sleeved shirt that she was wearing beneath the gown. Sesshoumaru had not noticed the woman's figure during their first meeting. She had been wearing that green cloak, which made her appear much more modest.

Moving his eyes back up to her face, he observed her attractive, exotic features. Her red-gold hair glowed in the sunlight, making her appear radiant. She seemed otherworldly. He noticed that the scratches Inuyasha had given her had completely healed. They had covered most of the right side of her face and were rather deep. Now there was no trace of them, not even a scar.

_It obviously wasn't Inuyasha's attack that killed her. Maybe she was already dying. Perhaps that is why she was so fearless. Wouldn't I have sensed her fear about her upcoming death? That's ridiculous. If she had been dying in the first place, her body would not have repaired itself so well._

Sesshoumaru thought about this as he unconsciously stretched his hand toward her face and gently ran his knuckle down the previously-damaged cheek, feeling no hint of injury. All he felt was her soft, slightly cold skin. He was wondering if he should bother letting Inuyasha know that his new comrade was dead when he froze in place.

The supposedly dead woman had moved. As he had stroked her cheek, she suddenly gave a sweet smile. She spoke in a melodic language that Sesshoumaru did not understand while she lifted her right hand to touch the palm of his hand with her fingertips and slowly slid her fingers along his hand, their hands touching palm to palm. She appeared to still be asleep. Sesshoumaru was wondering if he would be able to move away quickly without waking her, when she turned her head and placed a gentle kiss on the back of his hand – an action that shocked Sesshoumaru, but still he dared not move. Her hand continued to move along his, her fingertips reaching the end of his long fingers. She stopped when her fingertips touched the ends of his claws.

The next thing Sesshoumaru knew was that he had been thrown to the ground – hard – and was pinned down. The creature that had attacked was on top of him, with one foot pinning down his arm, a knee was on his stomach, with the rest of the leg pinning down one of his legs, and a strong hand was wrapped around his throat, digging a thumbnail into his neck. Two dark, blood-red eyes were mere inches from his own and he heard a low, rumbling growl come from the creature that had pinned him. Had anyone else been in this situation, they would have been scared to death.

Sesshoumaru, on the other hand, was irritated, and possibly a little concerned. He had not sensed this creature at all and it had managed to pin him down. Now, all he could see was those red eyes. He looked out the corners of his eyes to see that there was a curtain of red-gold hair on either side of his face. His eyes snapped back to the red eyes, realizing that his attacker was that woman.

_How had she managed to hide her demonic scent from me?_ He wondered.

The claw digging into his neck drew blood. Suddenly, the growling stopped. His attacker blinked and her eyes returned to their normal deep blue.


	3. Battle of Wills

**Disclaimer:** If I had an original thought in my head, I would publish it for money instead of writing fanfiction. That being said . . . I do not own Inuyasha or any of its characters, nor do I own Harry Potter, Merlin, The Mists of Avalon, or any other works that I may reference without realizing it.

Elizabeth was furious. She had been having a peaceful rest. She was even having a great dream. It seemed so real. She could swear that she felt Merlin stroking her face and that she had felt her lips pressed to the back of his hand. She had mumbled something along the lines of, "I missed you, my love." Then the dream crumbled away when she felt claws.

She acted on instinct to trap her possible attacker, and identify him or her afterwards. She had allowed the vampire to surface, causing fangs and claws to extend while blue irises turned blood red. She had him pinned to the ground and, for added emphasis to show that she was not happy; she decided to jam the claw on her thumb into his neck. This would not kill him, but it would get the point across. When she drew blood, the stronger scent registered with her – she knew this person. Whoever he was, he had cold, golden eyes that reflected his own irritation. She raised her head a little to get a look at the person's face and immediately closed her eyes and cursed to herself in English.

"Damn it all to Hell! A pox on your whole family!"

She couldn't help herself. This was the second time she had been awakened – once by Inuyasha and now by his brother. She must be slipping – she should have noticed his approach long before then. Now that she thought about it, his was the same scent that she had noticed earlier. What was he doing – stalking her? Her vamp side almost kicked in as she thought about how she was lying on top of the gorgeous youkai.

_There are few things better than waking up on top of a creature this handsome. I wonder how well-built he is under all of that armor. Stop that! This is not the time; you are supposed to be angry, not thinking of another lay. Honestly, you really are like a female Miroko._

She almost smiled and laughed as she remembered when she first met Miroko. He had performed his signature move of grabbing her ass and asking her if she would bear his children. Elizabeth, her seductive vamp nature taking control, almost agreed to a little romp. That is until she saw the murderous look in Sango's eyes – aimed at Miroku, not at Elizabeth. Apparently they were together. If there was one thing she never did, it was seduce another woman's man. She also had a tendency to avoid men of the cloth, making her twice as unlikely to fool around with Miroku.

She opened her eyes again and looked at Sesshoumaru. His eyes made it quite clear that he was irritated about being pinned to the ground. Knowing that this was an undignified position for the great daiyoukai, Elizabeth decided to get off of him, but not before adding extra pressure to all the points where she had him pinned, emphasizing that she was angry, herself. As she stood, she kept one foot on his arm and one on his chest. She had grabbed her sword when she first pinned Sesshoumaru and she now held the point of it to his throat, making it clear that she was in charge and she was not going to let him go until she was sure he was no threat – unlikely.

She calmly looked at the blood on her thumb and licked it off as if it were a perfectly natural thing to do. Then she looked back down at Sesshoumaru.

"I know you. Inuyasha's brother. Sessh . . . something or another. Explain yourself."

He replied in an icy tone. "It is Lord Sesshoumaru. You will address me with the proper respect, wench."

"You are in no position to make demands. Explain yourself. I know that you have been following me. Why have you decided to disturb my sleep?"

Sesshoumaru tried to move, but Elizabeth applied more pressure and placed her sword closer to his throat.

"Explain yourself or I will resort to my original intention. Your blood tastes rather good. Better than pig's blood anyway. However, it would be a pity to kill you."

Sesshoumaru stared at her with cold eyes, expressing no emotion. _She had been sleeping, but she appeared to be dead._

"I thought you were dead. You were not breathing and your heart did not beat." He stated calmly.

"I am well aware of what my body does while I am asleep. That doesn't explain what you are doing here. Do you enjoy molesting corpses?" Elizabeth ground her left foot onto Sesshoumaru's wrist, remembering the feeling of a hand on her face . . . and claws. _It must have been him_, Elizabeth thought suddenly feeling saddened about how that had affected her dream.

"Release me." The youkai stated, suppressing the anger flaring up inside him.

"Not until I know why you have been pestering me and have determined that you are no threat to me."

"I will only harm you if you do not release me now."

"You will try but not succeed." Elizabeth stated with a bored sigh. In an instant, she had moved over to a nearby tree. She leaned slightly against the tree, holding her sword like a cane (both hands on the hilt while the end of it stuck into the ground). She had her head cocked to the side slightly as she watched the tall youkai rise to his feet with grace and dignity.

_Clearly an arrogant bastard. He probably doesn't enjoy the fact that he has just been bested._

Sesshoumaru, tempted to pay her back for this humiliation by pinning her to a tree, merely got to his feet, keeping his golden eyes glued on this strange woman, watching her every action.

_She clearly has some youkai blood in her. Yet, she smells like a normal human. How is that possible? Even now she leans against a tree with no concern for the danger that she is in._ He added without a touch of anger. _Such disrespect will not be tolerated._

They stared at each other for a few moments when Elizabeth spoke with a hint of annoyance. "I have released you. Now either explain why you disturbed me in the first place, or be on your way, Sesshoumaru.

"I do not take orders, especially from lowly humans or hanyous, whatever you may be."

Elizabeth lowered her head and pinched the bridge of her nose as if she was starting to get a headache. _A _stubborn_, arrogant bastard. I have better things to do than deal with him._

"I see this is going nowhere and I am not going to waste anymore of my time." She carelessly walked over to her cloak and scabbard, which still lay on the ground near Sesshoumaru. He grabbed her by the throat – only with enough force to stop her moving – as she tried to bend down and pick up her belongings. He forced her to look him in the face to study her features better.

His curiosity had gotten the better of him. "What are you?" He asked with an icy tone. "You smell like a human, but you seem to be more than that."

Elizabeth stared back at the glaring golden eyes, showing no hint of emotion. "You don't miss anything, do you?" She said with a note of sarcasm but quickly added when she felt the grip around her throat tighten, "No, I suppose you could say that I am not really human. Albeit, everyone thinks that I am, even youkai with sensitive noses. I only smell like a human because creatures like me are created from humans."

_I suppose if all he wants is information about me, I can spare a few seconds – maybe he is interested in some fun. _She thought lustfully. She had to admit, she was very attracted to him. Of course, what good-looking man didn't attract her?

"What sort of creature are you?"

"A vampire." She stated, hoping to leave it at that.

"What is a . . . vampire?" He asked, the word being completely unfamiliar to him.

Elizabeth remembered that she was in Japan, a land that vampires had not yet traveled to, with the exception of herself. Magical creatures were like any other creature – they had regions that they were indigenous to and could not be found anywhere else. The magical world had kept track of all vampires and werewolves in Europe, among other dangerous creatures, and made sure that they never left Europe to cause trouble in the rest of the world, or to increase their numbers uncontrollably. Of course, the magical world had no control over her actions.

Humoring the intrigued youkai, Elizabeth answered, "A vampire is a cursed creature that lives off the blood of others. Some refer to us as the undead, the living dead. I believe you are familiar with the obvious reasons for that. Of course, real vampires always appear to be dead to anyone who can sense it." She almost wanted to smack herself for this last bit of information. This would only lead to more questions that she did not feel like answering.

"You're not a real vampire, then."

Hesistantly. "No, I am not. I am only a half vampire. I suppose if you so wish, you can think of me as a hanyou. I prefer to leave it at that. If you want to learn more about my kind . . ." she forced herself away from Sesshoumaru, "you can ask Kagome, the young priestess that travels with Inuyasha."

Kagome, being from the future, had learned a great deal about the lore relating to vampires. Most of her information had come from something called horror films, but Elizabeth could not deny that the information was more or less correct. Even worse was that many of the actions that had been attributed to the names of fictional vampires were things that she had done in her own bloody past.

Elizabeth scooped up her belongings and prepared to leave, but Sesshoumaru was not yet ready to let her leave. In a flash, he had her against a tree, his hand again wrapped around her neck, lifting her about a foot off the ground. "I have not yet given you permission to leave, woman." He was disappointed to see that she still showed no fear. She didn't even struggle to escape. She merely closed her eyes and she suddenly seemed to be lighter.

"Is it a fight you want really, Sesshoumaru? In all honesty, I am not in the mood for it. But such is life." She spoke with slightly strangled words and then raised her leg to position her foot against his chest. She pushed him away with such force that he lost his grip on her and flew back a good ten feet. Sesshoumaru landed gracefully, not allowing himself to reveal his surprise. When he looked back to Elizabeth, he saw that she was hovering about a foot off the ground, as if he was still holding her there. She lowered herself to the ground and picked up the sword she had dropped. She stared at him expectantly, prepared for him to make another move.

"I would prefer that this doesn't take long. I plan to return to Inuyasha and the others by nightfall." She stated with an impatient tone.

Sesshoumaru drew his own sword, Tokijin. _It is time this woman learned her place_, he thought as he lunged toward her.

The battle lasted longer than either of them had expected. Neither of them managed to inflict any real damage on the other – just a few cuts here and there. Sesshoumaru grew increasingly impatient with this woman's taunting, but his respect for her abilities also grew. Perhaps he had held back a little in the beginning, but he soon found himself putting full force into his attacks. He had even gone so far as to use his youkai attacks – his poisonous claws and whip. No matter what, she had been able to dodge or block every attack. She matched him in speed and strength. All of her defenses seemed to be solely her own. Her sword seemed to be just a normal sword. He was tempted to use Dragon Strike, Tokijin's strongest attack, but he stopped himself. His whole purpose was to put this woman in her place, not kill her. However, her attitude had not appeared to change. In fact, she seemed to be enjoying herself too much.

Elizabeth's mood had been getting better since this little spar began. That was exactly how she viewed it – a spar. She did not really try to injure Sesshoumaru, only block and avoid his attacks. Occasionally, she would strike back at him, only to have him dodge. She had not been expecting this good of a fight from him and had been using every ounce of her unnatural strength to match him. Of course, she could have stopped the fight at any time. She knew a number of powerful spells that would incapacitate, or even kill, him. But she didn't want to do that. Besides, it would be underhanded. He had no idea that she was a powerful witch. Also, she was enjoying the fight too much.

_I thought he appeared skilled when fighting Inuyasha, but who wouldn't look like a skilled fighter compared to Inuyasha's undisciplined style? What a nice surprise that he truly is skilled. I bet he is equally skilled in bed._ Elizabeth's seductress side spoke out in her mind, making her smirk a little.

Yes, as the fight had gone on, such thoughts had been entering her mind. _He would make a nice addition to my list of conquests._ She suppressed the thoughts to keep her mind on the task at hand, but still getting a little bit of that seductress look in her eye as she watched Sesshoumaru's actions. She was starting to feel like her normal self.

They had found themselves stuck in a hold. Their swords were crossed, forming the only barrier between the two of them, their bodies being less than a foot away from each other. Elizabeth looked up into the inuyoukai's golden eyes with a smirk.

"Aren't you getting bored with this yet?"

"Are you saying that you give up, woman?"

"No, simply that it is getting late and I have other things to do." She made a quick move, removing herself from the locked position, without getting injured.

"Tell me Sesshoumaru, you are such a skilled fighter, why is it that you have not trained your brother to fight? I realize that _style_ is not something that can be taught, but you could at least teach him some basic skills." Elizabeth asked, knowing that Sesshoumaru hated his brother. She had decided to choose this moment to play with him a little.

"Why should I train that worthless hanyou? His tainted blood is a disgrace to my family."

"Tainted blood. So you hate your brother just because he is half human? Of course, if you had accepted him and trained him, he might have learned to better control his demon side. He could have become stronger, behaving more and more like a full-blooded demon and becoming less of a . . . _disgrace_." Sesshoumaru glared at her, wondering where she was going with this.

Elizabeth continued, not bothering to observe his expression – it never changed anyways. "Who else would have been better to train him and have him better understand his power than his own, full-blood demon brother?"

"He still would be nothing but a worthless hanyou."

"Is that your only excuse? Or is that the only excuse you allow yourself to believe?"

"What do you mean by that?"

"Nothing. It is just that I think your problem with Inuyasha does not rest solely on the fact that he is a hanyou." Sesshoumaru flicked his whip at her, which she blocked with her sword and jumped out of the way.

"Really, I think your problem is a silly case of sibling rivalry. The others told me about your fights over the sword, Tetsusaiga. Does that sword represent your father's love for Inuyasha? He gave Inuyasha the better sword because he was the favorite son. Obviously you weren't happy about this because you wanted to be the favorite, but you misdirected your anger to believe that you hated Inuyasha because he is half human." Elizabeth had said all of this partially because she thought it was true, but mostly to get a rise out of Sesshoumaru. It worked.

He moved faster than she expected him to and had pinned her against another tree, this time with a much stronger hold than before. His face was inches from hers. "I am not jealous of that pathetic half breed. In either case, it is none of your business."

"So it's not jealousy? Then there is some other reason that you have misdirected your anger towards him? Perhaps it is not my business, but I can't help but be reminded of my own brother when I think of you two. He hated me because I was his half-sister and because I was half-human. Of course at the time, he had no idea what it meant that a vampire had been my father. He feared me and tried to kill me a number of times, although he always made the attempts look like accidents."

"Are you suggesting that I fear Inuyasha?" Sesshoumaru asked, getting angrier at her impertinent remarks but not letting his voice reflect his emotions.

"No, at least not while he has control of himself. I lost control of myself once. My brother was the second person I killed." Elizabeth smiled at the memory, showing the fangs that she had let grow out again. "I regret a number of things, but even now, I relish the taste of his blood. Do you think the same may happen to Inuyasha?" She asked tauntingly. In her mind, she did not expect Inuyasha to be able to kill Sesshoumaru, no matter how out of control he was. It was still fun to put the thought into his head.

"Inuyasha will never be able to kill me."

"No, I suppose not. You may find yourself dead long before then, especially if you keep picking fights with creatures who are more powerful than you realize. I, for instance, have been fighting you with brute strength and speed alone. If I so chose it, I could have ended this fight long ago." She smirked at him.

Sesshoumaru's grip tightened on Elizabeth, digging his claws into her flesh, drawing blood. He did not believe what she said. Suddenly, she vanished. He had not felt her move and could not understand how she had escaped his firm grasp. It was like she disappeared into thin air. Then he felt a sudden push from behind. He had been slammed into the tree, face first and then was spun around to face his attacker.

Elizabeth felt she had proven her point. She had disapparated from Sesshoumaru's grasp and re-apparated behind him. Before he had a chance to react, she forced him against the tree and held him there, holding the flat of her blade horizontally against his throat, ready to twist the edge against his throat at any moment. It was time to end this.

Just for the sake of her own fun, Elizabeth leaned closer to him and brought her face up to his. She gently pressed her lips against his, feeling him move his head back against the tree in a startled response to her touch. She was disappointed that he did not return the kiss, nor could she sense the slightest desire from him.

_Such a frosty response, perhaps he is not interested. Either that or he won't let himself succumb to his desires. Off limits now. Such a shame._

She sucked on his bottom lip a little and let her fangs graze his lower lip. As she did this, she lifted her free hand to his chest, just above his armor. She quickly slid her hand under his haori and slid it over to his left shoulder, feeling him tense at the contact. Finding the point where his arm had been severed, she cast her spell.

Sesshoumaru had been frozen in place, unsure of how he had gotten into this situation. He had just been fighting with this woman and now she was kissing him. It was not an unpleasant sensation, but he was angry that this lowly hanyou had the impertinence to touch his person in this manner. This was not like when she had kissed his hand – she had been asleep then and had not been completely responsible for her actions. He tensed again as she slid her hand under his clothing. What was she going to do? She separated her lips from his.

Then Sesshoumaru felt an unbearable pain at the end of what had been left of his arm. The feeling of thousands of huge splinters being pushed into his flesh ran down his arm and seemed to extend down, past the point where his arm had be severed. For an instant, he thought he could actually feel the rest of his arm, but then the pain soon overwhelmed that sensation, shooting through his entire body. The pain was so unbearable that he nearly let out a scream, but stopped himself from doing so – he would not show his weakness in front of this woman. Unfortunately, he was unable to stop his knees from buckling. He sank to his knees and leaned forward, in too much pain to realize that the vampire was supporting him from falling to his hands. He felt Elizabeth remove her hand and push him back to lean against the tree. He looked up to see her walking over to the place where she had been sleeping.

He was still breathing hard from the pain and could not bring himself to move. He watched as Elizabeth placed her scabbard around her waist and sheathed her sword. She then wrapped the cloak around her shoulders and turned to walk back toward Sesshoumaru. She knelt down to look him in the eye.

"I've got to say that you are tough. I've done that to others who ended up screaming and crying like babies. It takes a lot of restraint not to scream from that kind of pain."

"What did you do to me?"

"See for yourself." He followed her gaze to his left side and saw that his left arm had reappeared. It was numb, so he had not even noticed it before. He tried to move it, but it felt like a dead weight.

"You won't be able to use it right away. It is still healing. Considering your strength, I'd say you should regain complete use by daybreak. For most people, it takes a couple of days."

He tensed again as she grabbed both of his wrists, apparently comparing the two of them – inspecting her work. "Damn I'm good," she said with a smile. "Perfectly symmetrical, even down to the purple marks on the wrists."

She let go of his right arm and gently lowered his left arm to the ground. She stood and turned to walk away.

"Why did you do this?"

"Because I felt like it."

"I don't need your charity. I did not need my arm back."

"Don't be so damned proud – pride is a terrible weakness and only leads to downfall. I know that you can take care of yourself perfectly well with one arm. But really, you having only one arm is like a great work of art that has been defaced. And I am nothing if I cannot appreciate a lovely piece of art when I see one." She looked him up and down with another seductive look before looking away as if regretting a decision she had made. "Such a shame."

Sesshoumaru did not know how to react to her statement, especially that last, cryptic bit.

"And another thing," Elizabeth said as she stepped closer and knelt down, staring directly into his golden eyes. "It has been a long time since I met anyone who could challenge me like you have. I want to see if you will be even more of a challenge with both arms." She turned her head as she heard a high pitched voice.

"Lord Sesshoumaru, where are you?"

"Someone seems to be looking for you, and it is time for me to go." She stood up again.

"Didn't you say that you could have easily stopped the battle anytime you wanted – that you have more powers than just brute strength and speed?"

"That I did and I believe I just proved it. Of course, I also meant that I could have easily killed you."

"Why didn't you?"

"Because destroying a beauty like yours would have been a crime against the world . . . and because that would have been underhanded. You have no magical powers that I can discern. How can I, in good conscience, use my powers when you have no defense against them? And believe me, you _wouldn't_ have any defense against them. If I had been in a situation where you truly were my enemy, I might have actually killed you."

"You don't consider me to be an enemy?"

"Not yet. If I were you, I wouldn't try to make me into one."

Just then, a small toad demon came crashing through the bushes, followed by a young girl. Elizabeth took no notice of them, turning on her heel and running off. She leaped into the air and transformed into an osprey, one of her favorite animal forms, and flew off to find Inuyasha's group.

"Lord Sesshoumaru, there you are! Who was that lady?" the young girl squealed.

"Her name was Elizabeth, Rin." Sesshoumaru said distractedly, not seeming to be aware that he had answered the question.

"We've been looking for you everywhere, m'lord. Oh! M'lord! You have your left arm!"

"That is correct Jaken."

"But how m'lord? Isn't your arm supposed to be in your father's grave?"

"That woman you saw returned it to me."

"That was nice of her. How did she do that?" asked the young girl.

"Magic."

"I hope we get to see her again. I want to be able to thank her." Rin said happily.

_Perhaps I will see her again. No, I will see her again. That strange woman will not get such an easy fight from me next time. She acted entirely too familiar with me with no respect for who I am. This Sesshoumaru does not even allow high-class demonesses to act so brazen toward him. She showed no shame in her lustful glares either. She will learn her place – just another pathetic hanyou. _

As Sesshoumaru managed to move the fingers of his left hand slightly, he thought, with a brief feeling of surprise and uncertainty._ Just how powerful is she really?_


	4. Some People Never Learn

_Author's Note: Hey all. I wasn't really sure that I was going to continue posting this story, considering that for a while, I had just a handful of hits and no reviews. So, I was feeling somewhat disappointed with my writing ability and creativity and decided to drown my sorrows in the humor of Christopher Moore and Terry Pratchett for a while. _

_But then, I did get a review (thank you, Stitches). I'll say this, it was a great feeling seeing my story published for the first time (did I mention that this is my first fanfiction?), but getting reader feedback is even better. I know I claimed to post the story just for the fun of it, but deep down, I wanted to know what others thought of it. But isn't that why most of us post stories, anyway? So, yeah, I'm going to continue posting a few more chapters to see how it goes._

_**Disclaimer:**__ I do not own anything._

It was dusk. Elizabeth soared just over the tree tops. When she remembered that she had received a few cuts and had blood on her, she maneuvered toward the river that she had been sitting near before the whole encounter with Sesshoumaru. She made a graceful dive into the water, skimming just below the surface for a split second, allowing her entire body to get wet. Just as gracefully, she ascended back into the air, drying her feathers as the wind blew through them.

She found Inuyasha and the others in a little clearing that had become their campsite for the night. They were preparing dinner when Elizabeth landed on a boulder near their campfire, making no noise except for the rustling of a few feathers. Of course, the group had noticed the large bird of prey that had landed so close to them and they were a little confused about it. As they stared at her, Elizabeth changed back to her human form, ending up in a sitting position, placing her arms behind her and leaning on them while she crossed her outstretched legs at the ankles.

"Hello, Elizabeth! We were wondering where you went." Kagome greeted her.

"What the hell have you been doing?" Inuyasha asked after a tentative sniff. "You smell like you have been bleeding and . . . I can smell Sesshoumaru's scent too. It's all over you!" Inuyasha stated, staring hard at Elizabeth.

"Of that, I am painfully aware." Elizabeth stated nonchalantly. "It seems that bad manners run in your family, Inuyasha, and that I will never get a decent day's rest while I am here."

"What happened?" Sango asked, a perplexed look on her face.

"I was minding my own business, trying to take a nap, when _your_ brother decided to barge in and wreck a rather nice dream I was having." She cast an irritated glance at Inuyasha as she remembered the event.

"What did he do?"

"He got too close for comfort – you know how jumpy I am when strange demons approach me while I'm sleeping." She glanced at Inuyasha, who immediately got a glum look on his face as he remembered the large bump he received on his head from falling out of that tree.

"So what happened after that?" Shippou asked.

"Just a little spar – nothing epic."

"A spar? You mean he didn't try to kill you?" Inuyasha asked.

"Well, by the end of it, I am sure that he did want to kill me. He probably still does. I'll admit that I may have taunted him a little too much and was rather . . . disrespectful. Although, I had every right."

"So why didn't you bother to get cleaned up?" asked Kagome.

"I attempted to take a quick bath. I wasn't about to do anything more until I am sure that Inuyasha has no other relatives that might want to pester me during peaceful moments." Elizabeth explained, resulting in sympathetic giggles from Kagome and Sango. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. Suddenly, a small wind began to flow around her and just as quickly died back down. Elizabeth looked down at her arms – the small tears and dried blood were gone. "That's a little better."

"Well, Elizabeth, if you don't feel safe taking a bath by yourself, I can always join you. You know . . . to protect you." _Thud_. Miroku's comment was punctuated with Sango's hirakotsu hitting him in the head.

"I don't need protection, Miroku." She replied with an amused smile. "Although, you would probably need protection from me." She added with a sultry tone in her voice and smiled to show off her fangs,. This was meant to be playful and to remind Miroku that she was known to be a deadly seductress. Apparently Miroku missed the hint, staring at her as if he might actually have a chance.

Sango, however, did not miss the hint. Hitting Miroku once again, "She was joking, Monk."

"I'm sorry. Sometimes I just can't help myself. Especially after fighting with Sesshoumaru. What an Adonis . . . and such a skilled fighter." She got a far-off look in her eyes, but the others did not notice. Of course at the time they were all staring at her with their mouths gaping open, and not really paying attention to Elizabeth's expression. When she noticed their looks, she snapped out of her own thoughts. "What?"

"Did – Did you just say that Sesshoumaru was an Adonis?" Kagome struggled to ask.

"What's an Adonis? The way you say it, it must be something good." Sango asked, perplexed.

"Adonis was a human man from Greek mythology. He was supposed to be so handsome that even the goddess of love was in love with him." Kagome said, remembering this little fact she had learned in school. "You don't really think that about Sesshoumaru, of all people, do you?"

"Why not? Can you seriously tell me that you don't agree that he is handsome?"

"But he is so cold-hearted!"

"I am not judging his personality – only his looks."

"Well, his looks are attached to an unpleasant and violent personality, so I think it should have some bearing. . ." Miroku began to grumble.

"Oh, shut it, Monk." Sango interrupted. "It's not like you two are in competition for Elizabeth's affections."

"That is for certain." The aforementioned witch agreed. "No competition exists – I've no interest in monks and Sesshoumaru shows no interest at all. Pity." She reclined back with a wistful sigh.

"And what did you do to determine that? Kiss him?" Kagome joked, her mirth becoming uncertain when the witch did not answer.

"Elizabeth?"

". . ."

"Elizabeth?"

". . ."

"Elizabeth?!"

"What?!"

"You kissed him didn't you?"

"Perhaps. Perhaps not."

"What! I don't believe it! How did you get him to do that?!" Inuyasha broke into the conversation, amazingly understanding what Elizabeth's reply really meant.

"He was pinned to a tree with my sword to his throat . . . I think he took offense to it. Oh, well. I repaid him for the insult . . . or maybe I just insulted him further, from his perspective."

"What did you do?"

"That, I am sure you all will learn about soon enough. I imagine that he will show up sometime tomorrow, after he is healed completely. If he's really angry, he might show up tonight."

"How can you talk about all this so nonchalantly? Do you have any idea what kind of demon you're dealing with? Wait . . . what do you mean healed? Did you manage to injure him?"

"You could say that."

"Would you give a straight answer already?"

"No."

As far as Elizabeth was concerned, this was the end of the conversation. There was no need to go into the detail of the whole fight, or of how Sesshoumaru had awakened her exactly. She was sure that Inuyasha would pick at him over the little information that she had provided. It would serve as good fodder to get a fight going between the two of them – good training for Inuyasha. Elizabeth hadn't planned this, but it seemed like a good idea.

The night went on without any events. After the group finished their dinner and spent a little time speculating about how Sesshoumaru might seek revenge for unnamed insults, they each settled down into their own routines. Sango sat by the fire, inspecting her various weapons to ensure that they were in good repair. Miroku sat apart from the group, seated in the Lotus position with his eyes closed. For all appearances, he was meditating, part of the time at least. A sharp eye would see that, from time to time, Miroku would take advantage of his chosen spot, slightly behind Sango, to sneak a peek at her rear when she would lean forward for one reason or another.

Kagome sat near the fire with books and notebooks spread on the ground and a small lantern adding much-needed light. Ever the optimist, she tried to stay current with her studies, without the aid of teachers and their incredible ability to make sense of the characters scrawled across the pages. Everyone once in a while, the rest of the group could hear her cursing Pythagoras, Euclid, and every single person in history responsible for passing down the knowledge of said Greeks.

_May they all have a happy place in Hell where all they do is work geometry problems and always get the wrong answers. Yeah . . . and grouchy nuns hit them over the knuckles with rulers for getting wrong answers. _She thought to herself. Okay, maybe she was getting a little carried away.

When she was on the verge of screaming to the heavens over her hatred of useless postulates and theorems, and chucking all of her work into the fire, she decided that it was time to call it quits for the night. She packed up her books and settled into to her sleeping bag. Shippou, after seeing this, abandoned his current work of art in crayon and cuddled into the sleeping bag with Kagome.

Both Elizabeth and Inuyasha had perched in trees, keeping an eye on the group and listening out for possible threats in the dark woods.

"Ain't you going to sleep?" Inuyasha asked, when it was clear that he and the witch were the only two awake.

"I don't sleep well at night. You can sleep if you wish. I'll keep watch."

Inuyasha hesitated, not accustomed to having another around who was able to handle anything that the wilderness might dish out, he slept very little when they were out in the open like this. Sure Miroku and Sango were strong fighters, and were good protectors, but they were still human. They had their limits of what they could fight . . . and they didn't bounce back from injuries as easily as he did. Not to mention, he wasn't used to letting his guard down and relying on another for protection.

It boiled down to trust. Inuyasha didn't have much of that to spare, considering his upbringing and the whole Kikyou debacle. Growing up like he did, he couldn't trust anyone. The first time he did try to trust someone, she betrayed him, or so he thought. Things like that can make someone want to hole up in a cave and never speak to another living being again. Either that or turn into something like his brother, who would kill you just as soon as look at you.

_I'd prefer being sealed to the tree._ He thought as he looked over his friends, the few beings that he did trust. He could depend on any one of them to give their all to protect each other. Even give up their own lives. Heck, he would give his life for any one of them, too– even the runt. But Elizabeth was new. He wasn't sure if he could trust her yet. Ironic, considering she would be the first member of the gang that didn't try to kill him or steal the Shikon shards. Well that should amount to something.

"Fine. I'm a light sleeper. I'll wake if anything happens, anyways."

The hidden meaning behind his words was not lost Elizabeth as she watched him jump from the tree to find a comfortable spot on the ground. She listened to the sounds of the night. It was proving to be very quiet . . . and boring. After a few moments, she decided to entertain herself with a book that Kagome had given her from her time. Actually, the book was a collection of works by an author named William Shakespeare. Kagome had to learn about Western literature in school and this Shakespeare fellow seemed to be one of the premier writers in all of history. Kagome had been having trouble mustering up any interest in the subject – partly because it required her translating the English text in order to understand it – and, for some reason, hoped that Elizabeth could help her understand it better. Elizabeth really had no idea what help Kagome expected her to be – what did she know of futuristic writers.

Fully capable of reading by the dim light of the moon, she began to read the introductory pages of the book, learning about the author and the era in which he lived. No wonder Kagome wanted her help. This author was going to be born within the next 40 years or so and was going to be living in a world with which Elizabeth was well acquainted. No doubt his style of speaking and writing would also be familiar to her, so she could translate the strange, old English sayings for Kagome. Elizabeth flipped to the section of sonnets. After reading the first few, she could understand why the text had not been provided in Japanese – it would have lost all beauty if it had been translated from its original language. She began to chuckle to herself at the subject of the sonnets.

_Lewd. People of the future really think this is great literature? Do they have any idea what some of these sonnets are about? Well, some of them are not so bad. I guess he is less vulgar than some other writers. _

She continued reading for the rest of the night.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Sesshoumaru had spent the night on the same riverbank where they had fought. He made it appear that he had chosen to stay there, ordering Jaken and Rin to set up camp. In reality, he lacked to ability to get his legs to cooperate enough to allow him to walk without having to show the amount of concentration it required. The spell used to regenerate his arm had spread pain through every nerve ending in his body. When the pain was gone, his entire left side felt numb, while the rest of his body felt like his joints were made of . . . well, _something_ jiggly and not substantial enough to support his weight. He was in no means defenseless while sitting there. He had been in worse situations. Still, it irked him that he was put in this position, unable to move without putting forth a monumental effort.

Dammit, was he or was he not the demon who traveled within the sacred boundaries of Mount Haukuri, fight _two_ undead members of the Band of Seven and came out unscathed? And all to save Rin from her kidnappers. Something really needed to be done about the girl's tendency to be kidnapped, but that's beside the point. That barrier was painful and drained his energy, but he managed to fight within it while making his actions look as if he were swatting a pesky fly. An errant thought in his mind pointed out that Jakotsu _had_ managed to land a couple of hits on him. He crushed that thought back into the recesses of his mind. The point is that this stupid spell had managed to make him feel weaker, and the feeling was not going away fast enough.

He was all about appearances, after all. All was right with the world as long as he could maintain his cool composure and look as if nothing can phase him. Through an intense internal struggle and a great deal of will power he managed to maneuver his body to his customary sitting position, leaning against a tree with one leg outstretched and the other bent to provide a prop for his arm, while making it look as if nothing were wrong with him, physically. It was a good thing that Jaken and Rin were accustomed to seeing him sit for hours on end, not moving a muscle. Otherwise . . . it might have raised some irritating questions.

Speaking . . . well, thinking of irritating things, Sesshoumaru allowed his mind to play back the entire scuffle between him and the vampire, or whatever she called herself. He had to admit to himself that he did enjoy the fight a little. Few beings could put up such a fight, without the aid of magic to distract and confuse. Inuyasha was different because he was too stupid to stop when he knew he was losing the battle. Elizabeth had matched him strength for strength and still had more that she could throw at him. But she didn't. She fought well and with honor. He could respect that.

Then she had to kiss him! The anger flowed up again over such blatant disrespect while another subconscious thought struggled to point out that the kiss was not so bad. He searched his memory, trying to find a single incident where he allowed a woman to make such untoward advances upon him and allowed her to live. Of course there were none, and it wasn't for lack of women trying. Yes, there had been many women in the past who had wanted him, be it for his wealth, power, or looks – mostly his looks. Most of them had the sense to keep their feelings to themselves and he ignored them easily. The more persistent ones gained this wisdom about two seconds before they died.

Females were little more than a distraction to him. They served no use except to bear pups; and none that he had met so far were worthy of the honor of bearing his. They were all weak, superficial, insincere creatures unworthy of the slightest glance from him. Rin was the only exception, but she was like his daughter and still young. She had yet to grow into the vanities of womanhood. With luck, she never would.

Sesshoumaru gave an uncharacteristic shake to his head, attempting to derail his train of thought. He knew Rin was mortal and was not looking forward to the day when she would leave this world. Thinking about her aging and dying would not improve his mood.

Returning to his current situation, he tried to move the fingers of his left hand. The movement took less effort than it had before and he had some feeling in his fingertips. He lifted his right arm, noticing that it felt stronger and he did not have to fight to keep his hand from shaking. Soon he would be back to normal and he would hunt down that witch. He rest his head against the tree and looked up to the stars as happy thoughts of vengeance danced in his head.

_Tomorrow. _He thought with a smile.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Elizabeth had decided to stay with the group as they traveled the next day. The only reasons she had for leaving the group were for when she wanted to take a nap or to find something to eat, or drink, as the case may be. She sensed that her eating habits made the humans in her group a little uncomfortable, particularly Kagome. For this reason, she made sure to partake of her meals when they were not in sight. However, she was not hungry right now, and probably wouldn't be for a while. And taking a nap was out of the question, considering her latest experiences.

The group had stopped for a rest and to eat lunch. Elizabeth was sitting against a tree. She had one leg stretched out and one bent at the knee as a prop for the book she was reading. The plays had struck her fancy and she was spending this time to continue reading.

"Do you really understand what is going on those plays?" Kagome asked.

"Of course. Well, more or less. Some of the words that Shakespeare uses are unfamiliar, but I guess that is because he made up a number of words."

"How do you know that?"

"It said so in the introduction. Apparently he is responsible for the modern English language."

"Do you even understand the sonnets? Those are the ones that I have had the worst problem with. Poetry is the most difficult to understand."

"Yes. Which ones are troubling you?"

"How about the one that begins _A woman's face with Nature's own hand painted . . ._ it sounds so beautiful, but I don't know what it all means."

"Ah, yes, Sonnet 20. They really make you read that in school? Perhaps futuristic children are not so naive and innocent as you seem to be?"

"What do you mean?"

"That sonnet appears to be written to a man, who has rather feminine features. Actually, a good number of the sonnets are written to this man. I think Shakespeare was in love with him – at least for a little while."

"What?! Shakespeare was _gay_."

"Well, I would say that he liked men and women, if you know what I mean."

"I don't think my teacher really wants me to go into that much detail about the sonnets."

"I didn't think so. That would not be appropriate for a school. What other sonnets bother you?"

Kagome took the book from Elizabeth and flipped through it to find the another sonnet "I am almost afraid to ask, but what about this one that goes . . . _They that have the power to hurt yet will do none._ I am completely lost about that one." She handed the book back to her and Elizabeth looked over the poem before speaking about it.

"I am willing to bet that he wrote this poem in frustration over a woman who had refused him, but I suppose the description could really apply to anyone." Elizabeth glanced up for a second before returning to the book. "It seems our own 'festering lily' is headed this way."

Everyone looked at Elizabeth in confusion. Then Inuyasha spoke up. "What are you talking about? Wait . . . Sesshoumaru is headed right for us." The hanyou's weaker senses had just caught the scent that Elizabeth had already referred to.

"Aye, the 'summer flower' approaches."

"You think this poem describes Sesshoumaru?" Kagome asked, thinking Elizabeth had lost her mind.

"I think it can describe anyone, but Sesshoumaru is a perfect and convenient example. The poem says it all – 'unmoved, cold and to temptation slow.' I don't think he would ever give into any kind of temptation that would cause him to act beneath himself."

"You make a decent assessment of me." Sesshoumaru had appeared in time to hear this last statement, but did not know the context of the conversation. He stood a good twenty feet from the group, not yet appearing hostile.

Elizabeth did not bother to look up. "What took you so long? I half expected you to show by day break, if not earlier."

Sesshoumaru replied by drawing Tokijin and dashing toward the woman, who was still sitting under the tree, showing no concern for her safety. He had moved so fast that he was a blur to the rest of group. When he stopped, they saw that he was standing in front of Elizabeth, with the tip of Tokijin inches away from her chest, aimed directly at her heart. Everyone except Inuyasha scrambled out of the way of what may end up being a fight.

Elizabeth had dropped her book to her lap and held her hands, with the palms together and her fingers pointing toward her chest. Tokijin was caught firmly between her hands, preventing Sesshoumaru from moving the sword any farther.

"Still you do not show the proper respect."

"What's the matter Sesshoumaru? Is your woman being difficult?" Inuyasha commented in a low, taunting voice.

Elizabeth glanced out of the corner of her eyes toward the hanyou. She expected him to pick a fight with Sesshoumaru by mentioning the youkai's previous embarrassment, but she had not expected him to do it in quite that manner. She did not appreciate being referred to as anyone's property, even if it was meant as a joke.

"Inuyasha, Sit!" Elizabeth stated the command that usually came from Kagome. Her words had no effect on the beads of subjugation, but Inuyasha fell to the ground anyways. She didn't need the beads to get the same effect.

"Kagome, what did you do that for?!" Inuyasha yelled with a mouthful of dirt.

"I – I didn't. Elizabeth did."

"Think more carefully before you speak, Inuyasha. Try provoking Sesshoumaru into a fight without irritating me." Elizabeth said calmly.

"I am not here to fight my weak little brother. Don't think that because you ran away the fight is over." He tried to inch the blade closer to her chest, but Elizabeth's grip held firm.

"And I still have no desire to fight with you. Besides, you wouldn't want to suffer the same embarrassment as last time, only now with an audience? Fight with Inuyasha – he could use the practice."

"Not until you have learned your place, hanyou."

Elizabeth sighed. Still holding the sword, she kicked Sesshoumaru's sword hand to make him loosen his grip for a second. She let go of the sword and dashed out of the way in an instant. She had moved about ten feet away, standing behind Sesshoumaru.

"If that is truly your wish, then don't get angry when you find yourself in a less-than-dignified position again . . . _Lord _Sesshoumaru." She addressed him with the proper title while shifting into a deep curtsy, fit for the English royal court. Not an easy task to accomplish with her sword at her hip.

She straightened back to her full height, and drew her sword slowly. "So, how shall we determine when the fight is over? Fencing rules? Who ever gets three hits first is deemed the winner?"

"The fight will be over when you are dead." He replied icily, not knowing what fencing was. It was beginning to irritate him that she kept using words that he did not understand – of course he didn't understand them because Elizabeth had a tendency to mix some English into the conversation when she could not think of an appropriate Japanese word to fit what she wanted to say.

"Then we will be here for a while." She sighed, gripped her sword with both hands, and made the first attack.

_Author's Note 2: You may be wondering about the Shakespeare fixation in this chapter. When something strikes my interest, I can develop a bit of a fixation, and it can manifest itself in my writing. Well, when I wrote this, I was taking an Introduction to Shakespeare class. Now, I already liked his works, but my instructor made the class much more interesting with his liberal views. Basically he could turn anyone of Shakespeare's lines into something lewd, despite the pretty packaging. When it came to the sonnets, he was convinced that some of them were written to a young man. After reading them, I am inclined to agree. _

_I have not included my instructor's name for privacy's sake. Hopefully I have not committed some kind of plagiarism, intellectual theft, or what-have-you while including that little bit about the sonnets, because that was far from my intention. So many people I know dislike Shakespeare's works because they believe it to be pretentious, stuffy, and difficult to understand. In reality, Shakespeare's works were geared toward amusing the general masses and in those days, what amused them was pretty much what amuses us today – sex, violence, ghosts. And if those failed, there were the shocking moments of insight of every human soul that can make you pause for a moment of careful consideration. I just wanted to try to give others a glimpse of what many of us appreciate about this great writer. However, if there is a problem with my posting, I am sure someone will let me know, and I will do some editing._

_Also, if anyone wants me to, I can post the two sonnets discussed on my profile. Just let me know._


	5. Convincing

_**Disclaimer:**__ I do not own anything._

She started out slow, making several strikes – first a thrust at his chest, then a slash from the left, then from the right. Every blow was blocked, but she continued to step forward with every attack, Sesshoumaru stepping back from the force of the blows. She held the sword to her left, as if she was going to make another swipe at him, but then suddenly spun around to her left, bending at the knees and crouching at the same time. She held her sword in her right hand, using her free left hand to help her keep her balance. As she came around to face Sesshoumaru, she straightened out her left leg, attempting to sweep his feet out from under him, while preparing to thrust her sword upward into his chest.

This move had taken a fraction of a second to perform. She had moved so fast that Sesshoumaru almost didn't have time to react – almost. He jumped out of the way of her leg and landed about fifteen feet away and stared at her – she was still on the ground, kneeling on one knee, her left arm stretched out by her side while her sword arm was poised for attack as she glared back at him, showing no emotion. He was surprised at her fervor for this fight. Last time she had seemed to be defending herself, not trying to attack him. It had taken him by surprise when she made the first attack. Now that he had managed to break away from her, he could go back on the offensive.

He rushed towards her and followed one blow after another, often using his repaired arm to make additional attacks with his claws and whip. No matter how fast he moved, she managed to gracefully and skillfully avoid or block every move.

Inuyasha and the rest of the group stared in awe as the two master sword-fighters fought. They had been moving too fast for the humans to see, but they occasionally got a glimpse of the two when they ended up in a momentary lock, with looks of fierce determination in their eyes. Shippou and Inuyasha were able to see some of the finer points of the fight that had been hidden in the rapid movements.

"It's almost like they're dancing." Shippou stated. "Neither one of them has managed to injure the other, but they aren't holding back in their attacks."

"It seems they're equally matched in skill. I never would have thought that Elizabeth was so strong – she really doesn't give off that kind of aura." Miroku said with an awe-filled voice.

"Vampires are supposed to be very strong. She might even be stronger than most, considering that she doesn't seem to have any of the weaknesses that others have." Kagome remarked, remembering some of the "facts" that she knew about vampires.

"Isn't she a witch too? Why doesn't she just use some magic to finish him off and be done with it?" Inuyasha grumbled.

"Because you should be watching us and learning something!" Elizabeth decided to interrupt the conversation. Despite the fact that they were a good distance away from the group and the sound of clanging swords was ringing in their ears, both Elizabeth and Sesshoumaru could hear the conversation perfectly and it was starting to annoy both of them. "God knows you could learn a little technique and style! You look like a barbarian when you fight and you have no discipline!"

Sesshoumaru almost had to laugh at the woman's remark. He had to admit that she was right. Was she trying to use this as a teaching opportunity? But this was not the time to allow himself to get distracted. The two of them had caught themselves in another lock. Each of them had their swords raised as if they were about to strike the other, but were unable to do so. Each of them had caught the other's sword hand and held it in a firm grasp, preventing the other from swinging the sword. It was almost a ridiculous situation. They were leaning toward each other, trying to put all of their weight into breaking from the other's grasp – there was less than a foot of space between their bodies.

"What the hell? When did Sesshoumaru get his arm back?" Inuyasha finally noticed this little fact. "Elizabeth, is that what you were talking about last night? Have you completely lost your mind? Why would you do that?"

Elizabeth did not reply to the bombardment of questions – she was a little busy struggling with the owner of the molten gold eyes that that were boring into her own. She was struck with the urge to plant another kiss on him, or better yet, sink her teeth into his neck.

"Relax, Inuyasha, she seems more than capable of dealing with a two-armed Sesshoumaru." Miroku tried to calm the tense hanyou.

Just then Elizabeth gave a smirk and made a quick maneuver. In a fraction of a second, she shifted her weight back and dropped to one knee, pulling Sesshoumaru forward. She had a foot against his chest, to prevent him from falling on her and to make him flip over her to land on his back. The momentum of her own body made her follow through in a roll and end up on her knees, straddling Sesshoumaru's waist. She had his arms pinned to either side of his head, slamming his sword hand down hard to get him to drop his weapon. The unorthodox maneuver had Sesshoumaru stunned for a few moments. To some, it would seem the witch had won, but he was not about to give up.

In a burst of unexpected flexibility, Sesshoumaru had brought both of his legs up in front of Elizabeth, crossing them over her chest and forcing her onto her back. Sesshoumaru rocked forward and situated himself so that he was now on his knees and leaning over Elizabeth, pinning her hands on either side of her head. He did not realize the situation he had put himself in until he heard the onlookers' comments.

"That lucky dog." Miroku mumbled under his breath. A loud _thud_ immediately followed the comment as Sango's weapon collided with Miroku's skull.

"Shippou cover your eyes." Kagome said as she covered the kitsune's eyes.

"So, am I supposed to learn that little move too?" Inuyasha added with a smirk.

Sesshoumaru quickly glanced down to realize that the position he was in with this woman was highly indecent. She was on her back, with her legs spread, bent at the knees, and her feet flat on the ground. He was between her legs and leaning over her. He was tempted to release her and move away quickly, but that would have appeared like he was embarrassed. What to do. Elizabeth made the decision for him. She brought both legs up and managed get both feet planted against his chest and pushed him away with incredible force.

Sesshoumaru was angry now, being made a fool of in front of these silly humans and weak demons. There was no holding back now. He had grabbed Tokijin and stared at Elizabeth, who was just grabbing her own sword.

"Dragon Strike!" The blast of blue light headed straight for Elizabeth. No matter how fast she moved, she would not have been able to dodge it. If she wasn't killed, she would be badly injured. There was no way around it. As the blast died away, shock glinted through Sesshoumaru's eyes for a second, but no one noticed – all of their attention was focused on the woman who had been the target of the blast.

They all stared, slack-jawed, at the woman who knelt on one knee holding her sword so that the point was in the ground. The palm of her left hand was against the flat of the blade, her fingers running up toward the hilt. Her other hand held the hilt of the blade with her thumb pointing up, as if she had just delivered a death blow to the ground. She had her head lowered, her eyes closed, but with a look of concentration on her face – it almost looked like a woman praying before a cross. Her stance was not the shocking part – it was the fact that she was completely unharmed.

_Close one._ Elizabeth thought to herself. She knew her blade would be able to protect her from anything that a demon blade threw at her, but she almost wasn't fast enough to get the sword in a defensive position. _He didn't use that technique last time. He must be angry. Perhaps I should not have straddled him like that in front of everyone. Dammit, does no one know how to have any fun around here?_

She opened her eyes and straightened up to look at the daiyoukai. With deliberation, she stood and pulled her sword from the ground. She stood to her full height, giving her a regal air, and gripped her sword tight, letting her claws extend as she did so. She felt her fangs grow out and stared at Sesshoumaru with eyes that were turning a dark purple, trying to hint to him that he was trying her patience and that if he continued with this silly fight, it would be his loss.

At first she thought that Sesshoumaru was going to give in. Showing no expression, Sesshoumaru sheathed Tokijin.

"Do you concede?" She referred to his action of submission.

"Of course not." Sesshoumaru had one more move to try on this woman.

With that, Sesshoumaru's eyes turned red. She could see his face elongate and take on a more canine appearance before a whirlwind engulfed him.

"This isn't good. He's going to transform." Kagome yelled.

Sure enough, the whirlwind grew larger and then died down, revealing a thirty foot dog with silvery-white fur. Its eyes glowed red and it had a familiar blue crescent moon on its forehead. It stared at Elizabeth and gave a growl. Sesshoumaru waited to see the woman's reaction, expecting her to give up the fight. He had no idea how stubborn she was.

Elizabeth was a little surprised at Sesshoumaru's transformation. She had heard about it when Kagome told her the story of how he had lost his arm in a battle with Inuyasha, but it did not compare to actually seeing it for herself. However, she did not let herself show her surprise – two could play at the mask game.

"Oh, what a cute doggy." She said with a smirk, knowing that that would irritate the youkai.

"Elizabeth, I don't think you should taunt him like that." Kagome said weakly, obviously a little nervous about the direction this situation was heading. Visions of green mist and acidic drool filling her mind.

"Elizabeth, just run while you still have your life!" Inuyasha yelled.

She ignored the hanyou, still staring at the great dog. She knew this whole battle was about Sesshoumaru's monumental ego. If she were a less competitive being, she would have thrown a stun spell at him and left him somewhere to sleep it off. If she had done that, however, he would have come after her again . . . and again . . . and again.

_If it's a pissing contest he wants, it's a pissing contest he'll get._

"Very well, if you insist on taking this further." Elizabeth sheathed her sword and removed her sword belt. She tossed the weapon to the side.

She covered her head with the hood of her cloak, drew the cloak around her body and bowed her head – she was completely hidden under the green fabric. Soon the green form began to grow larger and take a different shape. The first thing that all of the onlookers could see was that the green fabric was taking on a leathery look. A long, scaly tail unwrapped itself from the main part of the body. It stretched out and lowered itself to the ground with a thud, showing off a set of dangerous spikes at the tip. The main part of the body raised itself off the ground, revealing two large, clawed feet, as if the creature had stood up on its hind legs. A pair of leathery wings unwrapped themselves from the main body and fully extended as a large, horned and scaly head emerged on an elongated neck. The beast breathed out a burst of flame into the sky, not appearing to aim at anything in particular, as it leaned forward and landed on a second pair of clawed feet.

Inuyasha and the others stared on in shock. They knew the creature was Elizabeth, but they were not sure if they should be terrified or not.

"A – A dragon?" Kagome said in disbelief.

"Is that her true form?" Sango asked.

"I don't think so. I think her true form is that of a human. I wish she would have told us that she could do that."

"Why." Inuyasha asked thickly.

"Because she's a dragon! She just breathed fire and she is just as big as Sesshoumaru! Aren't you a little terrified of that?"

"It's not like she's going to attack us. She's fighting Sesshoumaru."

"But what if she is going to act like you do when you transform? She could just as easily attack us!"

The dragon turned to them and gave them a look of annoyance, not that any of them knew what an annoyed dragon looked like.

_I am not going to attack you. I am fully in control of myself._ She mentally transmitted this message to them. She hated to invade her companions' minds like that, but she couldn't express herself verbally and they were being distracting. She gave a nod when they all appeared to have enlightened looks on their faces, wondering how she had just "spoken" to them.

She looked back over to the great dog. Indeed, she was nearly his size, if you didn't count her tail. She had made that whole display with the fire breathing and wings in order to appear intimidating and let Sesshoumaru know just what he was up against.

Sesshoumaru looked back at this creature, not completely sure of the action he should take. He had not expected her to be able to turn into this great monster. How was it that he could not sense these things about this woman? Still, he was not about to run from this fight. Surely, she would be slower and have other weaknesses in this form.

Finally, he made his attack, leaping directly at her. Elizabeth was ready, batting him away with a clawed foot and leaving some scratches on the side of his face. He did not let this deter him. This one, little action had shown that she was somewhat slower than himself and he would use it to his advantage. He made for another attack but quickly changed the direction of his aim. Elizabeth was not able to move in time and soon found that the dog had clamped his mouth down on her left front leg, but caused no damage – the dragon scales were a natural armor, even against his acidic saliva.

Needless to say, Sesshoumaru was not pleased with this little fact, but he was determined to find another weakness. In order to rid herself of the clamped jaw, Elizabeth swung her tail around and it collided with the dog's side. The spikes had caused minor damage, since they were not directly aimed at him; but the impact of the powerful tail sent him flying into the nearby trees, uprooting every one of them.

The fight continued on in this manner for a few more minutes. Miroku and Sango found that they were better off in the air, sitting on Kirara, while Inuyasha carried Kagome and Shippou to keep them out of harm's way. This part of the fight was not nearly as pretty as the sword fighting had been, but it was just as awe-inspiring – that is . . . whenever the onlookers weren't fleeing for their lives. Also, the two fighters were actually injuring each other now. Well . . . Sesshoumaru was the only one who was bleeding, but Elizabeth had taken a few strong hits. One of her wings had been torn as well, but that had not seemed to bother her.

Finally, something unexpected happened. Elizabeth and Sesshoumaru had somehow gotten into a position where Elizabeth was rearing on her hind legs, exposing her belly. Sesshoumaru made another attempt to strike her, believing that it was pointless – her armor was too strong. Surprisingly, his toxic claws dug deep into her flesh, causing her to roar in pain. Quickly, she batted him away again, knocking him into some trees that had miraculously stayed upright until that point.

Elizabeth returned to her natural form, sitting on her knees and doubled over from the pain. Her right arm clutched the four deep claw marks on her left side that spread from just below her breasts down to her hip and ran half-way across her belly. Blood mixed with poison soaked her clothing.

_Damn! Scales on a dragon's belly are weaker, but those poisonous claws went through them like paper._

Seeing this, Sesshoumaru returned to his normal form. His face had some minor scratches and his clothing was ripped, blood staining it in some places. He showed no pain from the injuries. More than anything, he was shocked to see that he had managed to inflict such a deep wound on the woman who had given him such a challenge. And she appeared to be in genuine pain. He almost began to walk to her, but stopped when he saw Kagome and the others running toward her.

_She had been unstoppable until this point. How did I cause that much damage to her? She could have caused more damage to me than she did. Why didn't she, especially after I stated that I wanted her dead?_

He stood silently, staring at the woman and thinking about the events, yet showing no sign of his confusion, when Inuyasha jumped in front of him, Tetsusaiga drawn.

"Stay away from her, Sesshoumaru! You've done enough!"

Sesshoumaru was about to reply but was stopped. "Stay out of this, Inuyasha!" a slightly rasping voice yelled.

They both looked over to Elizabeth, who was surrounded by the others trying to help her. She pushed them away and lifted her right arm straight above her head, now holding her side with her left. This action was followed by the sound of metal on metal and her sword soon flew to her hand. She lowered the sword, pointing it to the ground and using it as a support as she stood up. Once to her feet, she took a deep, pain-filled breath, and straightened herself to her full height, letting her arm drop to her side and lifting her sword off the ground.

"Remember, this fight isn't going to end until he kills me." She took a few steps in their direction. "And I am far from being dead."

"Elizabeth, don't be stupid. You're badly injured!"

"It's just a scratch. I'll be fine." But Sesshoumaru could see the pain in her eyes. Pain, and nothing else.

"Elizabeth, I can see you ribs! It's more than a scratch!" Elizabeth rolled her eyes at the remark Kagome had shouted and returned her gaze to Sesshoumaru.

He turned to leave. "There is no point to it now. You have been defeated." He disappeared before she had the chance to respond.

She took a couple of unsteady steps after him. The look on her face telling the others that she had every intention of ripping him to shreds. Then she stopped and a small smile spread across her face.

_Touch__é__, Sesshoumaru. We're even now. Start another fight with me and I'll turn you into a frog._

"Elizabeth, are you okay? What are you smiling at?" Kagome asked.

"Nothing, just imagining Sesshoumaru as a frog."

"Why didn't you turn him into one in the first place?" grunted Inuyasha, "It would have saved you those nasty scratches."

"Now what would have been the fun in that? Did you learn anything from the fight?" She asked as she retrieved her sword belt and attached satchel.

"Yeah, never get you angry."

"Make sure you remember that." The others chuckled.

Elizabeth winced as she sheathed her sword and started walking in the direction where she could faintly hear running water.

"Where are you going? You need to rest and get medical attention." Kagome tried to stop her.

"I'll be fine. I'm just going to catch a meal. Then I'll take care of this scratch and take a much-needed bath." She looked down at her blood-soaked clothing.

_And repair my clothes_. She added with a frown.

"Scratch! Have you looked at yourself?"

Elizabeth regarded the four, deep claw marks for a moment, then asked, "Convincing, wasn't it?"

"What?" Inuyasha voiced everyone's confusion.

The witch gestured to her wounds. "Don't you think it was convincing?"

Hesitantly, Inuyasha nodded, "Yeah, we're all convinced you nearly got your guts ripped out."

She smiled, satisfied with the answer. "Good. I'll be back by nightfall. If you need anything before then, I'm headed in the direction of that running water." She spoke as she began to walk slowly, but showing little pain from the movement.The single evidence of injury was the bunched-up portion of her blood-soaked cloak, serving as a makeshift bandage to stop the flow of blood.

The others watched her leave in stunned silence, trying to understand the recent conversation. Then Miroku began to chuckle as if he had been let in on a private joke. Curious eyes drifted his way as his amusement turned into full-out laughter. When he regained himself enough to notice everyone staring at him, he choked out, "She let him win!"


	6. Another Interruption

_Author's Note: First off, thanks to I'llxBexUrxEnigma2010, bleedingcrimson, and nicsnort for you kind reviews, and to all the other readers out there who have added this as a favorite story and/or added it to their update lists._

_In the previous chapter, that last bit about Elizabeth letting Sesshoumaru win was not what I had at first. It just popped into my head while I was editing and I thought it would be funny. Then again, I have a somewhat skewed sense of humor. _

_~CW_

_**Disclaimer: **__I don't own anything. Wish that I did._

A couple of hours had passed since the fight. Elizabeth had done her usual routine for collecting blood and had consumed it quickly, fuming to herself the entire time. It _had_ been her intention to lose the fight at some point. It made sense at the time. She would have fallen, and Sesshoumaru, ego properly stroked and vindicated, would go away, never to bother her again.

The trick was to put up a convincing fight, so Sesshoumaru would have no doubt in his mind that he won, fair and square. That was easy enough, given that she did not have to hold anything back. The problem was that she got carried away from time to time, forgetting her original intent. Yes, there had been several instances where she could have given in, but her own obstinacy stopped her. And . . . well . . . the more he had to struggle for it, the more he would appreciate his win. It would be character-building for him.

_Aye_. She nodded to herself over her decisions, as if she had made it her goal in life to improve others' character flaws.

Then what happened? She gave him an opening to the weaker scales of her dragon body. How was she to know that his claws could do that much damage to the scales of a dragon's belly? They didn't even scratch the rest of her armored hide. So, for her troubles, instead of some minor scratches, she was nearly introduced to her own internal organs. _And_ she got a healthy dose of poison, too! Not that it caused any harm. It just slowed the healing process.

_I should have turned him into a frog_. She thought. Her only consolation was that the daiyoukai was not likely to seek her out for further vengeance. That . . . and she saved her dignity by playing the whole thing off as a planned defeat, instead of calculations gone terribly wrong . . . making it an actual defeat. Bah! It was all a matter of perspective.

Eventually, Elizabeth found the river that she had heard earlier. She stripped off the bloody clothing covering her upper body, knowing that no one was around to disturb her, including a certain lecherous monk – not that she was particularly concerned for her modesty. She cleaned the still-deep wounds and pulled a small bottle from her bag. After removing the stopper, Elizabeth leaned back from her sitting position, putting her weight on her right hand. Carefully, she let a few drops of the clear liquid fall onto each of the wounds, satisfied that each of them appeared to show improvement immediately.

_These should be healed perfectly in no time. And now for a hot bath._

She sat up straight again, immediately wincing and letting out a groan of pain. Not only was she wounded, her muscles ached from the unfamiliar strain they had experienced from the fight. It wasn't that much pain to her, but it was uncomfortable.

She slowly stood and raised her arms, facing the river. The water began to ripple and a ring of stone came out of the water, sectioning off some of the flowing water to form a deep pool. She made a waving motion, causing all fish in the pool to jump over into the flowing portion of the water. Then she knelt down and placed a hand in the water. Soon, steam rose from the water.

Rummaging through her satchel, she pulled out a towel and a midnight blue robe, embroidered with silver stars, and draped it over a low-hanging branch for when she was done with her bath. She slipped her clothes off and slid into the water. After a few moments of adjusting to the temperature, she released a sigh of relief as the warmth hit her tired muscles.

She cleaned herself and poured some scented oils – lavender and rosemary – into the water, allowing the scents to soak into her skin and hair as she reclined against the rock wall she had created, her head being the only part of her body that was above water. Remembering her damaged attire, she raised an arm toward her clothing.

In response, the pieces of clothing lifted from the ground, floating toward another part of the river and began to wash itself. Once clean, the clothes hung themselves on a tree branch to dry and mend themselves. Magic is such a wonderful convenience.

She sat for some time with her eyes closed, listening to the sounds around her. Then she opened her eyes with a frown. _I _knew_ this would happen._

Making a quick judgment of distance, she decided there was no time for action that would allow her to leave unnoticed. Most likely, he already knew she was there. A pointed look at the towel hanging on the tree branch brought the cloth floating to her. She grabbed it and draped it over her body as an attempt to preserve some modesty for the benefit of the approaching irritant.

_S_he looked over to her sword. It was unsheathed and lying on the ground, close to the pool, pointing away from its owner. _That will do._

She closed her eyes, hoping that it was all a coincidence and that he was not headed in her direction. Her question was answered when the blade twitched and flew through the air. He had been headed directly for her. Truly she had no luck.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Sesshoumaru had been wandering about, thinking of the fight he had just had with that insufferable woman. _Cute doggy_. He thought irritated. Even in his true form, she failed to show any fear whatsoever toward him.

He should have killed her when he had the chance, like he had originally planned. But he hesitated. He had almost felt concern when he saw her doubled over in pain. Had he gone soft and felt compassion for her? Did he not want to kill her when she was in a weakened state? Or did he just not want to kill her? She was a strong opponent, after all. Maybe the monk was right, maybe they were equally matched.

Now, Sesshoumaru was a logical being. He knew that it was the natural order of things that one cannot be at the top forever. It must come to pass where a challenge comes along that cannot be defeated. Had he not planned to challenge his own father to prove that he was the more powerful being, thus ending his father's reign? Yes.

So it stood to reason that he, himself would meet his usurper one day. Only, he didn't expect it to be now. He expected it to be sometime in the distant future, when he was growing weak with age. He imagined that he would lose to someone much like himself . . . to a full demon. Not a half human . . . and a female at that!

Then again, he didn't lose. He fought hard and managed to wound her. It didn't matter that it was just a stroke of luck that he found a weak spot. How many battles in history had been won because of luck? That's how he had lost his arm in the first place . . . luck. Maybe what bothered him was that during their first encounter, she had left him practically incapacitated.

However, she, with her injuries and his poisons flowing into her system, could stand and had every intention of continuing the fight. _If_ she had continued, she would have suffered a more decisive defeat. Of that he was sure. Really, he had provided her a service in walking away when he did rather than continuing a farce that would end in true humiliation for the vampire. Not that that was his intention. . .

Sesshoumaru was so caught up in his thoughts that he did not realize that he had been following a particular scent until he had almost reached the source. He had gotten to the edge of the wood and, following a sudden nudging of gut instincts, moved to the right one step, just as a sword flew toward his head. He stood motionless as it flew past his head, barely missing him, and drove itself into a tree behind him.

"Next time, it will strike you between the eyes," came the irritated, yet calm, voice of the woman sitting in the pool. "Between you and your brother, my patience is wearing thin – and _that_ is saying something. Try to pick another fight with me – then honor and fair play be damned, I'll turn you into a frog."

Her words did not register immediately. He had been surprised to see that he had followed her. He had not even realized that he had picked up her scent. Wasn't even sure _when_ he had found it. To top it off, he came across her while she was bathing. It was a natural male reaction, he reasoned, that his eyes briefly scanned the body beneath the clear water. At least she was covered with a towel, making the situation less awkward.

When her words did work through his brain, he looked to her face. She had turned her head to give him a glare that meant she was not joking. Even while bathing and being at foot level with the daiyoukai, she did not hesitate to give the most intimidating looks. Considering her past magical demonstrations, Sesshoumaru had no doubt that she was capable of doing what she claimed. But was he going to let that intimidate him?

"My apologies," he said, somewhat surprising himself. He told himself that he was apologizing for intruding upon her privacy. Certainly, he would not enjoy random people and demons interrupting him during his bathing.

She looked at him with a surprised expression, but then went back to her glare, "Apology accepted. Now leave."

Despite the looming threat that he could spend the rest of his life catching bugs with his tongue, Sesshoumaru coolly replied to the order, "You are hardly in a position to make demands."

"Actually I am." Elizabeth raised her arm and her sword flew back to her hand, once again narrowly missing Sesshoumaru's face. "I am always in a position to make demands. Now leave!"

"Not until I have learned what I want to know." Sesshoumaru lied, not really knowing why he had appeared in this woman's presence. He had settled his issues with his pride. He had no reason to start another fight as a demonstration of who is stronger.

Elizabeth took a deep breath, apparently trying to keep her temper – why did he irritate her so much – and sank below the water, letting the warmth provide a calming effect. After some moments under the water, she brought her head back out of the water and looked back over at the daiyoukai. Then she turned her head away and put her face in her hands, massaging the bridge of her nose and her temples.

"Stubborn, arrogant jackass." She muttered to herself in English.

"What is that gibberish you keep speaking?"

"It's not gibberish. It's a language called English. Surely you have realized by now that I am not native to Japan."

"I have. Why are you here?"

"I am going where ever Fate leads me." She motioned for her robe, which floated to her, opening itself and hovering above the water to hide Elizabeth as she rose from the water. Without bothering to dry off, she slipped the robe on. The fabric clung to her wet skin, molding to her form, but the dark color preserved some modesty.

In her self-righteous anger, Elizabeth felt that she would not give Sesshoumaru an opportunity to feel that she was trying to seduce him again. Walking around naked might be construed as such. Besides, gorgeous as he may be, he was proving to be a real . . . stick . . . and her attraction was waning. She walked to her belongings while ringing out the drenched towel. Sesshoumaru noted that she walked without showing any pain.

"Are your wounds better?" Was that the slightest hint of concern in his voice?

Elizabeth turned toward him to deliver another glare. "See for yourself."

Holding the right half of her robe so it covered her front, she opened the left half to reveal her previously-damaged side. Sesshoumaru was greeted with the vision of a shapely leg, a well-rounded hip, a smooth expanse of skin leading up to the swell of a breast hidden under the dark fabric, and . . . absolutely no marks to suggest that wounds had ever marred the milky-white flesh. Just as quickly as she had revealed this little bit of her body, she closed the robe, securing it with a sash made of silver cloth.

He looked up to her face, her irritable expression clearly asking _Happy, now?_

"Seeing as you refuse to leave this place, then I will leave." She stated as she gathered her damp clothes and other belongings. A passive move . . . yes. Truly, she was too nice at times. Why she did not carry out her threats against him, she could not say. Maybe some niggling thought in the back of her mind told her that he may be of some use in the future. Besides, what good would it do her? Knowing him, she'd end up with a vengeful bullfrog as a stalker.

"Why do you behave like that?"

"Like what?"

"You do not fight unless forced into it and you do not kill. You could have easily killed me yesterday, but you didn't."

"'Thou shalt not kill' – it's one of the Commandments." She turned to walk away.

"Commandments?"

"Given to us from the one true God." She added with a holy air, crossing herself as she spoke, not bothering to look at Sesshoumaru as she explained. "Besides, this world is violent enough without me adding to the turmoil."

She left, muttering curses in her foreign tongue and leaving Sesshoumaru to wonder about her remarks.

_Why does she speak in such a cryptic manner? I thought she was weak, letting her emotions play across her face the way they do, but is it all an act? She seems to be just as guarded as the strongest of any youkai. _

His curiosity was getting the best of him. He needed to know more about this mysterious creature, this vampire. That particular type of demon alone was a mystery to him. What were these creatures? What made them so different from other demons?

Sesshoumaru's thoughts were interrupted by shouts of "Elizabeth! Where are you?"

Sesshoumaru recognized the scents of the two women that traveled with Inuyasha. That and the scent of the fire cat that must have been leading them to the woman. They were bickering with each other.

" . . . should have tied him to a tree. Inuyasha'll probably let him sneak away." Sango was complaining about their resident, lecherous monk who had claimed concern over their new companion and that someone should go to check on her. Naturally, he was more than willing to be the volunteer for the task. To assuage Miroku's concerns, Sango and Kagome had decided to go in search of Elizabeth.

"I don't know what you're worried about. It's not like he has a chance with her. She has no interest in him, either. So there's no reason to be jealous." Kagome chided her friend.

"I'm not jealous! I just . . . don't want him getting hurt. What if he runs into something while wandering around alone in the forest. Like some crazed female demon posing as a beautiful woman." Sango finished weakly. Miroku didn't have the best record with women. He chased every marginally attractive female he met, and the willing ones always tried to rob, maim, kill, or eat him. Or so it seemed.

"Did you ever think that he wouldn't chase other women as much if you didn't beat him to a pulp every time he made a move on _you_? Really, one of these days you're going to cause him some kind of brain damage."

"His brain _is_ damaged. Why else would he keep grabbing my rear when he knows what will happen?"

"In my time, I've heard stories about men who _like_ that kind of treatment."

"Well, if that's the case, he should have no complaints." To Sango's relief, a meow from Kirara interrupted their conversation. "I think we're getting close."

Sesshoumaru stood in place as the two women emerged from the woods, opposite from the direction that Elizabeth had taken.

"Lord Sesshoumaru!" Kagome gasped, surprised to find the daiyoukai, and took several steps back. "We didn't mean to bother you. We were just looking for Elizabeth."

"Why wasn't she with you in the first place. She was injured. Shouldn't you, her friends, have been taking care of her?"

"What?" Kagome responded, surprised that Sesshoumaru was taking an interest. Shaking herself out of it, she answered. "We tried to, but she didn't want us to help."

"Why."

"She is very independent, but I guess that is to be expected."

"Hn." Somewhat of a valid excuse. Sesshoumaru was about to leave, but he remembered Elizabeth had said that this miko knew about vampires and decided that he would get information from her, since the actual vampire was being less than forthcoming.

"Tell me about the vampire."

"What?"

He gave her a look that said _You heard me the first _time. "Vampires . . . I am not familiar with such demons."

His new interest was another surprise and Kagome found herself answering shakily. "Oh, well, that is because they only exist in Europe."

Then her answer became nervous rambling. "Elizabeth didn't really explain why they only live there. I guess that is complicated."

"Europe?"

"Yeah. You know, it's a continent far to the west. Practically on the other side of the world." She paused but continued quickly after a demanding glare from Sesshoumaru told her he didn't care about geography.

"Well, the only things I know about vampires are what I have learned from stories, especially those about a vampire called Count Dracula. She didn't correct any of the facts that I had told her, so I guess they are correct."

"What facts?"

"Just the usual stuff about how they are created and their powers and needs."

"Tell me."

Kagome answered slowly, not knowing why Sesshoumaru was so interested, and not sure if it was information she should divulge. "Well . . . they are always pale, like they are dead. If fact, they are often called the living dead or the undead. They have superhuman strength and great healing abilities. They can have other abilities, like transforming into animals . . . but I guess you knew that already." At this last statement, a question popped into her head that she determined she would ask Elizabeth later.

"Uh . . . they only drink blood – they prefer the taste of human blood, but can survive off of any kind. I think Elizabeth said she usually drinks pig's blood."

"Hn." That he knew already.

"Um . . . yeah. So, that is also how they create other vampires. One vampire drinks nearly all of the blood of a human and then lets the human drink some of its blood – it makes the human transform into a vampire. It's like the human's body dies and is revived by the vampire's blood. The vampire blood keeps the body from aging or decaying, so the human practically becomes immortal."

_Sounds like a bizarre mating ritual, but may explain the lack of demonic aura._ "Immortal?"

"Yeah, they could live forever. But, given their . . . food preference, most people view vampires as cursed creatures that need to be destroyed. They try to use the vampires' weaknesses to kill them."

"What weaknesses are those?"

Kagome was hesitant to answer this question, not knowing if she should let Sesshoumaru know. He had been trying to kill Elizabeth, after all. Then again, Elizabeth didn't have these weaknesses.

"Um . . . they can only go out at night – the sunlight burns them. They can also be killed if they are set on fire, beheaded, or if a wooden stake is stabbed directly into their hearts. The scent of garlic repels them – I think it is a nauseating scent to them. Also, crucifixes, Holy water, or anything related to Christianity – a religion that is strong in Europe – can injure or repel them."

Sango nudged Kagome, giving her a _Why are you telling him that?_ look, but relief flushed over her face when she heard Sesshoumaru's reply.

"Elizabeth walks in the sunlight without harm." The two women were slightly shocked that the demon lord deigned to refer to Elizabeth by her name.

_She must have really made an impression on him. What am I thinking? Of course she did. Why else would he have been trying to kill her? _Kagome thought before responding.

"What? Yeah, I was a little surprised about that, too, when she told me what she is. But then she explained that she is only a half vampire – that seems to make a lot of difference. It's like her human half protects her from the vampire weaknesses and the vampire half strengthens her human side. She can even survive eating normal human food, although it is better for her to drink blood."

_Though, shouldn't a wooden stake still be a problem, since that can kill a human, too?_ Yet another question for Kagome to ponder. She didn't think Elizabeth would know the answer to that one.

"I see. How is that she is a half vampire? From how you describe it, they are created only one way that would either result in a full vampire, or a dead human."

"That's true. I don't think even she knows. All she said was that her father was a vampire and her mother was a human. Her creation should have been impossible and as far as she knows, she is one of a kind. In 1200 years, she has yet to meet another like her."

"She is 1200 years old?" There was no stopping the incredulity in his voice. He knew of few demons that had reached such an advanced age. Most of them were trees. It was easy for a tree to live longer than most other demons. They didn't _do _much of anything and it took a lot to destroy them. Other demons usually died in battle long before old age became a concern.Those that did reach the millennium mark usually spent a lot of time sitting around reverently, relaying wisdom gained from centuries of experiences, while the younger generations ran about, making fools of themselves. They complained about being old, too, and looked it. Elizabeth was remarkably well-preserved for her age. Nothing of her behavior suggested such an advanced age, either. Maybe she had reverted into a second childhood or adolescence . . . or a fifth or sixth. He had heard that was a problem for elders.

Slowly, the realization came to him that his equal in battle was a half-human woman who was 900 years his senior. Holding back a mortified groan, he imagined his injured pride whimpering and crawling away to hide under a rock.

Thankfully, Kagome's continuation of the conversation broke him away from the thought. "Roughly. She doesn't know the exact year she was born."

"Hn. Is there anything else you know about these creatures, or about the witch?" It took all of his concentration to keep his voice indifferent.

"Um . . . no, I think that's it." Sesshoumaru glanced directly in Kagome's eyes, knowing that her faltering voice meant that she was leaving something out.

Kagome understood the look and blushed as she gave the last bit of information she knew. "Well . . . I think you are already familiar with this fact, but vampires, both male and female, are known to be . . . lascivious – it's part of their nature. What better way to lull a victim into a false sense of security?" She nervously giggled at her last sentence.

"But Elizabeth is different. She doesn't do it to hunt victims. She just does it for fun and she sometimes is unable to control herself around . . . attractive men." Kagome's eyes widened as she realized what she just said, remembering how Elizabeth had made some moves on Sesshoumaru.

And there was the salt for the wound. Sesshoumaru turned and walked away at this last statement, keeping an emotionless expression on his face. He still had questions, but he was not going to ask anymore of these humans, especially because of the direction the topic was heading – specifically, his embarrassment during the battle. His pride had taken enough damage, and needed time to recuperate.

"Wait," the demon slayer called out. She had been listening to the conversation, the information about vampires was interesting to her on a professional level. As the daiyoukai was leaving, one of his earlier comments triggered a thought.

When Sesshoumaru paused, she asked, "You said she _was_ injured. You saw her?"

"Yes. She went up river."

With that, he disappeared into the forest, ignoring the shouted "thank you" from the miko.


	7. Interim

_Disclaimer: I do not own anything from Inuyasha, Harry Potter, or any other works I may refer to without realizing it. _

A Sesshoumaru-free week had passed since the last encounter with said daiyoukai. No one in Inuyasha's group was complaining about that fact. They had enough concerns without having to worry about his sudden appearances. The least of their worries being the inferior demons that would appear from time to time, attempting to relieve the group of their jewel shards . . .

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Elizabeth looked down at her clothing in consternation before she began peeling away the slimy layers, "Ever since I joined this group, I seem to have the greatest trouble staying clean."

Kagome gave a half-hearted groan of agreement. Having only her school uniform to strip off, she was already in the lake, attempting to remove the first layer of grime before starting in with the soap.

"It only gets worse," she commented while rinsing out her hair. As if proving a point, she paused in her task to untangle a bit of something that . . . well, she decided it would be best left unidentified. She flung the bit of refuse away with a disgusted grunt.

"We weren't even in the fight and we still end up like this," Sango grumbled after finally wrestling herself out of her slayer uniform. It was skin tight to begin with, but, saturated as it was, it was damned near impossible to remove short of cutting it off.

"Where did that thing come from anyways?" Elizabeth asked, slipping into the water.

"I think it must have swam up river from the ocean. I've heard about sharks doing that. But I don't know why something that big would come so close to land in the first place. Oh . . . we're going to smell like fish for days." Kagome had started shampooing her hair. There was going to be a lot of rinsing and repeating.

They weren't even sure what it was that had attacked. They had been traveling along a river when it burst out of the water. It was large. It had eight tentacles, maybe more. It may have been some kind of squid, judging by the large beak at the center of the mass. And, yes, they got a good look at _that_ when the creature had gotten a hold of Inuyasha and attempted to eat him. As already mentioned, it was slimy, too. That was a hindrance for Inuyasha when fighting it. He spent more time slipping and sliding than he did fighting. It sprayed an inky substance, too. Thus furthering the theory that it was a squid.

. . . Or so was the general consensus of the rest of the group as they stood by, watching Inuyasha battle it out. Oh, they had offered to help, but the hanyou was confident he could handle it. Really, he suffered no injuries and the fight was over as soon as he could keep his footing long enough to throw a Windscar at it. If it was slimy outside, it was even more so inside. And there was more ink.

"How long do you think it will be before Inuyasha's skin is back to its normal color?" Although he had been hit full-on with the ink, his clothing had taken the worst of it. Still, when he returned from his bath, the gray splotches covering his face and hands made him look like he was suffering from some flesh eating disease. Not that they all didn't share the look.

Kagome looked thoughtful, as if actually doing the calculations in her head, "Well . . . if he scrubs off a few layers of skin everyday . . . I'll have to remember to get him a strong loofah when I go home. Maybe I should use some peroxide to try to bleach out his hair."

After another silence she began to giggle to herself. When the other two women were staring at her, waiting to hear the joke, she blurt out, "Inuyasha looks like Cruella DeVille!" Apparently, she was the only one to get it.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

To add to their worries, it had also been a Shikon shard and Naraku-free week. It was becoming clear that there were no other shards left to collect, aside from the ones that Kouga and Kohaku possessed. That meant fewer crazed, jewel-strengthened demons to fight – which was little consolation because that also meant Naraku had most of the jewel shards.

And where was Naraku, Version 3.0, as Kagome had dubbed him? Nowhere to be found, as usual. The coward was in hiding, no doubt hatching another plot to get the remaining shards and gain ultimate power.

"Why does he want the jewel, anyways?" Elizabeth wondered aloud while they traveled one day. It had been a quiet day and they had been discussing the evil hanyou.

"Same reason everyone wants it. To become more powerful. Naraku will probably use it to become a full demon," Inuyasha replied irritably. "That's why I wanted it."

"Why do you want it now?" The witch inquired.

"What?" Inuyasha was surprised by the question.

"You said you _wanted_ it to become a full demon. That suggests you have a new reason now."

Inuyasha hesitated. It was a question he had asked himself several times and had yet to come up with an answer. He didn't think being a hanyou was so bad anymore, especially now that he had his friends who accepted him just as he was. However, they wouldn't be around forever. Hanyou that he was, he would still outlive his human friends. Then he would be stuck with Kirara and the runt. What would happen after that?

He had planned to become human for Kikyou, but he wasn't so sure if that is what he really wanted unless Kikyou was with him. Becoming a full demon was even less appealing. He feared that the jewel would turn him into the monster that he became when he lost control. At least as a hanyou, he had the chance of coming back to himself. What other uses might he get out of the jewel if he did not want to become demon or human?

"I don't know," He finally answered. "I just want to get it out of Naraku's hands and maybe find a way to get rid of it forever." The damned thing had caused enough pain and suffering.

After another thoughtful silence, Elizabeth asked, "If Naraku uses it to become a full demon, will the jewel disappear?"

"It's difficult to determine," Miroku replied. "Kikyou believed it would disappear if used for a pure purpose."

"Define pure."

The oddity of the statement made Miroku hesitate. Who wouldn't know the meaning of the word? "Untainted."

Elizabeth nodded as she stared blankly ahead, "Naraku using it to become a full demon would be a purely evil purpose?"

Kagome considered her question for a moment, "Purely evil, untainted by good. I suppose using it to turn a hanyou or demon into a human would be a purely good purpose?"

"Two extremes . . . could both lead to the jewel's destruction?" Sango asked.

"Then why was it not destroyed when 'purified' by a priestess, or when it was corrupted by evil?" Elizabeth asked.

"Well . . . I think it is never completely purified or corrupted. The shards I have now . . . I can feel the holy power in them. It is dominant, but the evil is still there." Kagome tried to explain, but felt that she had fallen short.

"Perhaps finding the balance between the two will lead to its destruction," Miroku suggested.

"But what might that be?" Kagome asked.

Elizabeth bowed her head, allowing the hood of her cloak to block the afternoon sun from her eyes. "And how can we judge the difference between good and evil?"

"What kind of stupid question is that? What kind of idiot can't tell the difference?"

The witch looked toward Inuyasha, "That simple, is it?" Her voice had taken on a far-away tone.

"Well, yeah."

"_I_ must be an idiot, then." She bowed her head again and remained silent as they traveled. The others remained silent, not knowing exactly how to respond to this remark.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

A couple of days, and a few minor skirmishes with weaker demons, later the group arrived at Kaede's village. Kagome needed to return to her time for some tests, demanding that she get at least a week so she could prepare beforehand in the peace and quiet of her own bedroom. She stayed one day in the village, catching up with Kaede before she disappeared down the well, promising to return with supplies, tons of ramen, and candy for Shippou. Inuyasha was more agitated than usual over this, but that was also because the new moon would be the next night. He was always cranky at that time of the month. It was a real curse to be a hanyou and have to worry about others finding out about his one night of vulnerability.

To distract Inuyasha from his anxieties – not to mention prevent him from going to Kagome's time before she was ready to return – Elizabeth enlisted Miroku to help with the beginning of Inuyasha's training. Discipline being his biggest hindrance she had decided on a course of action.

"You want him to what?" Miroku asked incredulously.

"Meditate."

The monk muffled a laugh, "This would be after we convince him to dress as a geisha and serve us tea?"

"I don't think it would be such an ordeal," Her tone was flat, not finding amusement in Miroku's doubt.

"Inuyasha is not the type to appreciate . . . mental exercises," He tried to placate her. "He is more of a take action sort. Give him something to rend to pieces and you have no problem."

"I thought a mindless killer was what he wanted to avoid becoming."

"I think his feelings are that he has already taken care of that issue."

"Do _you_ think he has?"

Miroku was silent for a moment. Then he sighed, "I'll get some sutras. At least we'll be able to make him stay still."

They tracked Inuyasha down at the Goshinboku, his usual spot when he wanted to get away from the village. He was less than willing to follow along with the plan.

"What good is sitting around, thinking about nothing?"

"It will teach you discipline." Miroku replied.

"I don't need discipline. Although I wouldn't mind learning some of your fighting techniques." He looked to Elizabeth.

"It's either both or none. You need to be strong mentally if you wish to be stronger physically." Elizabeth answered.

"I'm strong enough."

"You _should _be stronger. I've seen you transformed."

"What? This is about controlling my demon blood? You said I was getting better."

"Aye, better, but not perfect. And keep in mind that you didn't recover your own senses. I knocked you silly."

"Hey, when I fought Ryoukutsei I forced myself to find Tetsusaiga and regain control."

The witch sighed irritably. There was no talking to some people, "Inuyasha, come down here."

"No."

"Inuyasha, please remember I don't need the beads." The soft-spoken threat had Inuyasha scrambling out of the tree. By the time he reached the ground, the witch had already sat down and motioned for Miroku and Inuyasha to do the same. The three of them were seated facing each other, legs crossed lotus-style. Inuyasha had crossed his arms over his chest in irritation.

Elizabeth reached to tug one of Inuyasha's hands free and held out her other hand to Miroku. The monk followed her unspoken instruction, wondering what she was planning. "Miroku, this is why I needed you here. I am sorry to do this."

Images suddenly flashed through both Inuyasha's and Miroku's minds. They sped by too fast to pick out any single image and they were both confused about what was happening. Just as suddenly as they started, they stopped, focusing on one. Miroku recognized the image in an instant, but Inuyasha was slower to realize He barely had a memory of this in the first place, and he was seeing it through someone else's eyes.

He saw himself. . . crazed. . . feral. He dashed about a village square, attacking the moth demon that he remembered had given him so much trouble and encased him in a poisonous cocoon. For the transformed hanyou, the demon was no more difficult to defeat than it was to swat a normal moth fluttering around his face. Then he turned on the group of bandits that had followed the demon.

He heard the criminals begging for their lives as he tore them down. He caught flashes of the villagers he was there to protect. The fear in their eyes was directed toward him – that he knew from the aftermath of that day. The last few bandits were on their knees, begging for mercy. He saw his own face – jagged stripes ran across his cheeks; red eyes showing nothing but the joy of the kill; lengthened fangs glistening in a sadistic smile – as he cut them down. Had that really been him?

He hoped this was the end of the memory, but there was no such luck. He watched himself turn to face his half-brother. It had been perfect timing on the daiyoukai's part. At least here, he got what he deserved. Sesshoumaru could hold his own against even a transformed Inuyasha, despite his increased strength. It was sickening how Inuyasha kept coming at him, ignoring the many wounds Tokijin inflicted. He heard Sesshoumaru's remark that he was still just a weak hanyou and needed to learn his place. Tokijin swung down in a great arc, striking Inuyasha in such a way as to knock him out. To add to his shame of the horrible things he had done, he witnessed all of his friends shielding his unconscious form to protect him from the daiyoukai. They should have let Sesshoumaru kill him. But then, as Sesshoumaru walked away, he claimed to have no interest in killing Inuyasha unless the hanyou could know who it was that took his life.

The image of Sesshoumaru walking away faded to be replaced with Elizabeth's face, staring intently at him. Inuyasha took a deep breath, still shaking from the overwhelming fear he had felt during the entire vision. He cast a glance at Miroku, who was also very shaken from the experience. Belatedly he realized that he had witnessed the whole memory, as seen through Miroku's eyes. Which meant the extreme fear he had been feeling was from one of his companions . . . his friend. Had they all felt like that? Do they worry about the next time he transforms?

"What . . . what did you do?" He asked the witch.

She shook her head and waved her hand as if shooing away the question. "That doesn't matter right now. What matters is what you saw."

Inuyasha looked down, not able to meet anyone's eyes. He flinched when Elizabeth touched his hand again, fearing an encore vision. "I know I'm a meddlesome, old hag who has been offering help when not asked. But I've been where you are." She released his hand and stood up. "The regrets you feel over that one day . . . do you want to risk adding more?" Leaving the question hanging, she walked deeper into the forest.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Elizabeth had been wandering for some time. At one point she had transformed into a hawk and flew a good distance from the village. She decided to find something to . . . drink. It had been a couple of days since she fed on anything, except for a rice ball here or there. She performed her usual routine and found a spot next to a river. She leaped up to a tree branch to get a better view of the setting sun as she partook of her "meal."

She had been plagued by the memory she forced out of Miroku. Yes, she had seen it, too. She had felt Miroku's fear. Truly, she hoped Inuyasha would come around to her point of view. After all, if he doesn't want to be taught, he won't be. Any teacher will testify to that.

But if she wasn't here to help him, why was she here? Was it so much to ask for a bit of guidance? It didn't have to be something so dramatic as a burning bush, or anything like that. Was she just meant to wander around aimlessly for the rest of eternity, waiting for Fate to deliver her punch-line?

She was brought out of her thoughts when a faint scent reached her. It was the smell of fresh-spilled human blood – the blood of a little girl. She also smelt four demons in the same direction, possibly in the same vicinity as the little girl. She could not tell what kind of demons they were – they were unfamiliar to her. She could hear the faint sound of the little girl sobbing while someone else seemed to be yelling at her. Elizabeth decided that she should investigate.

Elizabeth almost expected to find a scene involving a little human girl being attacked by hungry youkai. She was relieved to find that the situation she came across was anything but that. The little girl appeared to be about five or six years old. She had dark brown eyes that matched her hair, which she wore with a ponytail on the side of her head. She sat on a boulder while crying and wiping her eyes on her yellow kimono. Elizabeth immediately saw the cause of her tears – a nasty, deep gash running across her right knee.

In front of the girl stood a short, toad-like demon, wearing a pointy hat and carrying a horribly ugly staff that had two heads carved into the top. He was yelling in a high-pitched voice, trying to console the girl, but not doing a very good job. A two-headed dragon-like creature, some kind of pack animal, stood by watching the scene.

Elizabeth stepped into the clearing, unnoticed until she spoke up. "Hello there. What is troubling you, young lady?" She spoke with a soothing voice as she approached and knelt to be eye level with the girl.

The little girl looked up with red-rimmed eyes and smiled at the pretty lady. "I was in a field when some mean demons attacked me. Master Jaken fought them off while I ran away, but I tripped and hit my knee on a sharp rock."

Elizabeth looked down at the cut and frowned. "I see. Would you like me to help you take care of it?"

"Yes, please." Sniffed the little girl.

"No, Rin. We don't know who this person is. The last thing Lord Sesshoumaru would want is another human following him around."

Elizabeth glanced at the toad at the sound of the name. "Sesshoumaru? I don't think you need to worry. I know His Lordship." She stated in her most regal tone, but then softened her voice again to address Rin, ignoring the toad's objections.

"The first thing we need to do is clean the wound. There is a river nearby. Can you walk or would you like me to carry you?" Rin jumped down from the boulder, putting weight on her leg, but immediately wincing in pain.

"That's alright. I'll carry you." She picked up the little girl, lifting her with little effort and placing her on her right hip, being careful of the injured knee and started walking to the river.

The toad and dragon followed them. The toad constantly talked about the nosy human interfering in their affairs and how Lord Sesshoumaru would not be happy.

_Aye, I won't be happy to see him either. If he is protecting this girl and smells her blood, that means he will be here soon. I should hurry to help her and be on my way._

They got to the river and Elizabeth set Rin on the bank. She reached into her bag to get out a towel and a small bottle of clear liquid – the same one she had used on her wounds days ago. She dipped the towel in the water and gently wiped away the blood running down the girl's leg. She cleaned out the excess blood in the wound and uncorked the bottle.

"Now, this won't hurt a bit." She let a few drops of the liquid fall into the wound and it began to heal immediately. "It should be all better soon. You won't even have a scar."

"Wow, what is that stuff?"

"Phoenix tears."

"What are Phoenix tears?" Rin had trouble pronouncing the foreign word.

"Well, a Phoenix is a bird that has magical powers. This liquid is the tears that I collected from one of them – it has special healing properties, as you can see. Here, you can keep this, in case you get hurt again." She handed the bottle to the little girl. "You only need to use a few drops at a time."

"Thank you, very much."

"Who are you anyways, human?" Asked the annoying toad.

"Oh, I didn't introduce myself, did I?" She was about to give her name when Rin yelled happily.

"She's the pretty lady who gave Lord Sesshoumaru his arm! Elizabeth!" She had a little trouble pronouncing the strange name.

The witch was taken aback by the girl's correct identification, "That's right. So you two were searching for him that day?"

"Yep. How did you give him back his arm? Lord Sesshoumaru said you used magic."

"That I did."

"Are you a priestess?"

"No, I'm a witch."

"Are you a good witch?"

"I like to think so."

"Can you teach me magic?"

"Well, I don't know. Not everyone has a talent for it. But we can test to see."

Elizabeth pulled a stick out from the inside of her boot and held it in both hands, showing it to Rin. "This is a magic wand. Most witches and wizards use these to cast spells. I'm going to let you use it, but be careful with it. I have had it ever since I was your age – it's an antique."

Rin excitedly picked up the wand and stared at it.

"Now, let's try a simple levitation spell." Elizabeth grabbed a leaf from the ground and set in front of Rin. "I want you to try to make this leaf float. This is what you are going to do."

She took the wand from Rin. "You will move the wand like this." She moved the wand slowly so Rin could study the motion. "At the same time, you will say 'windgar leviosa.'" As she said the words, the leaf lifted into the air and hovered about a foot above the boulder it had been resting on.

"Wow, let me try!"

"Very well, but practice saying the words first. You have to get them just right, or it won't work. Don't be discouraged if it doesn't work the first time."

Rin said the words a couple of times, getting used to how to pronounce them and then started to try to get the leaf to float. After the first couple of failed attempts, the little toad demon started making even more annoying comments.

"She's just a human child. There's no way she can perform magic. And we don't need another nosy human hanging around trying to teach her."

"How about you hang for a while?" Elizabeth addressed the toad and lifted a hand in his direction. The toad immediately floated five feet into the air and turned upside down. "Letmedown! Letmedown!" He yelled, with his arms and legs flailing helplessly.

"Master Jaken, you look so funny! Hey, how did you do that without a wand?"

"I've been practicing magic for a long time."

"Oh . . ." Rin went back to trying to levitate her leaf and finally succeeded. "I did it! Did you see that Master Jaken!"

"No! Letmedown! Letmedown!."

Elizabeth gave a slightly wicked smirk. "Now, now, what's the magic word?"

"Please." A smooth, icy voice came from behind them. Recognizing the voice, Elizabeth's smile disappeared and she let Jaken fall to the ground with a _thud_. She rolled her eyes at her carelessness for not noticing who had been approaching the group. She turned to face the owner and slowly stood.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

For the past week, Sesshoumaru had been avoiding Inuyasha's group while, at the same time, staying in its general vicinity. He reasoned that he remained near them in hopes that, if _he_ didn't do it first, they would run across Naraku. Yes, focusing on finding Naraku served as a good distraction for his still-tender ego. He was trading one vendetta for another. It should be his priority, anyways.

He had had no problem with the evil hanyou at the beginning. Naraku had his little plans for . . . world domination, or whatever. Sesshoumaru didn't care what the hanyou had planned, as long as he was not included in the plans. Then Naraku had to kidnap Rin (truly, he needed to do something about the girl's tendency to be kidnapped) as an attempt to trap Sesshoumaru. The goal being to absorb Sesshoumaru into his body of conglomerated demon parts. Yes, that was definitely a greater insult to the ego than not being able to kill a woman old enough to be his grandmother – maybe his great-grandmother.

A few days ago, he had caught the scent of some saimyoshou. He had long-since learned that the demon wasps were Naraku's eyes and ears. When they began to fly away, he followed them, hoping they would lead him to Naraku. As usual, the hanyou was one step ahead. After a few miles of flight, the damned things just fell out of the sky . . . dead. Why couldn't the coward come out of hiding and take the beating that he deserved? Surely, Naraku realized that with an enemy such as Sesshoumaru, it was just a matter of time before he was killed. Why put off the inevitable?

Well, that had been several days ago, and Sesshoumaru had not caught the slightest hint of Naraku since then. When Inuyasha's group seemed to have stopped in one place for several days, he had done the same. He would go out on solitary walks, as he was accustomed to do, either to think, or to catch some clue of the where-abouts of Naraku.

He would leave Rin in the care of Jaken and Ah-Un, knowing that they would usually be enough to protect her. However, he would always remain close enough in case something actually did happen to the girl. Like today . . . he was close enough that he could smell her blood when she had injured herself and he quickly returned to find that the group was not in the same place that he had left them. He found them at the edge of a river. Rin was sitting on a rock playing with a stick, while Jaken was suspended in mid-air, upside down and yelling at the top of his lungs. His tormentor knelt next to Rin, facing away from Sesshoumaru, not noticing he was there.

_Letting her guard down._ He thought with a smirk. After observing the scene for a few moments, he decided to make his presence know, since everyone seemed too busy to notice him.

He smirked to himself as Jaken was unceremoniously dropped on the ground and the woman turned toward him, her deep blue eyes staring into his golden ones.

"I was thinking of something more interesting, like 'Abracadabra,' but 'Please' works just as well." Came her cool reply, although she was clearly not happy that she had not been paying attention.

"Lord Sesshoumaru!" Rin shouted. "Look what I can do!" Elizabeth stepped away from Rin as Sesshoumaru approached. Rin performed her magic trick again, this time making the leaf float a little higher than before.

"Well done, Rin. You're a natural." Elizabeth said approvingly.

"Where did you get that strange stick?"

"Elizabeth let me borrow it. She's teaching me magic."

"Aye, but I think the lesson is over." Elizabeth said quietly, directing her statement to Rin. "It's time for me to go."

"But I was just getting it. I want to practice some more!" Rin said with a little pout.

"How about I let you keep my wand for a while and you can keep practicing."

"Really? Will you teach me more spells later?"

"Maybe." Elizabeth's voice had a tone to it that suggested, "No."

"Why don't you stay and teach her a little more?" Her eyes snapped up to Sesshoumaru's in surprise.

"What, no snide remarks? No demands for my life?"

"Rin wants to learn more magic. I can't deny that it might be a useful skill, based on what I've seen you do. Why you are here?"

"I ran across Rin. She was wounded and I helped her."

"She doesn't seem to be injured."

"Not anymore." Rin broke in, "Elizabeth healed me with Phoenix tears. See?" She held up the little bottle. "Now you can't even see where my knee was cut. Wasn't that nice of her?" She pointed to her knee and, indeed, not even a scar was left.

"Yes it was, Rin." His remark showed no emotion as he looked back at Elizabeth. "And how are your wounds?" He asked acidly.

"You mean those little dog scratches? Oh, you already know those were healed by that evening." She replied and smirked when Sesshoumaru's eyes flashed with irritation at being called a "little dog."

Elizabeth looked down as she felt someone tugging on her sleeve. Sesshoumaru followed her gaze to look at Rin, who had a concerned look on her face. "Please don't fight with each other. Teach me more magic!" her face suddenly brightened up again.

Elizabeth looked back at Sesshoumaru. The little girl was adorable and she really wanted to continue teaching her. She had always loved teaching budding witches and wizards, helping to shape them into the adults they would be. Then again, she didn't want to find herself getting too attached to the young girl. Getting too attached to mortals always ended poorly. So did getting too attached to demons, for that matter. None of them proved to be able to last out the centuries with her. A fact that had made Elizabeth keep people at arm's length for centuries, being friendly and helping others when they needed it, but never letting them into her heart. That was why she often wandered off from Inuyasha's group during the day.

Another drawback was that she would have to endure Sesshoumaru's presence while she was teaching Rin. Although he was a lovely sight to behold, and she still harbored indecent thoughts for him (and probably always would), his personality left something to be desired. No doubt if she stayed in his presence for too long, he would try to start another fight.

_Oh, well, it will only be for a few hours. How bad can it be?_ "Truce?"

"What?"

"I'll stay to teach Rin for a while, if you promise to be civil, and I will be civil towards you."

"Very well, provided you answer my questions with straight-forward answers."

"Why do I need to answer any of your questions? I am already doing you a favor in teaching Rin. What do I get out of this arrangement? It sure as hell isn't the pleasure of your company. In fact, it would be best if you wandered off during the lesson." She made a dismissal motion with her hand.

"How dare you talk to Lord Sesshoumaru like that, you worthless human!? You should be cowering in fear before his mighty presence!"

Elizabeth took a deep breath and closed her eyes. "Rin, may I have that wand for a moment? I want to show you another spell." She took the wand and flicked it toward the jabbering toad demon. "Petrificus totalis!"

Jaken was immediately turned into a stone version of himself. "Ahh . . . blissful silence." Elizabeth heaved a sigh of relief.

Rin started inspecting the Jaken statue, tapping it to make sure that he had actually been turned to stone.

Sesshoumaru struggled with himself to hold back a smile after seeing a new way of shutting up his retainer. "Make sure Rin masters that spell. It appears to be . . . useful." He walked over to a tree and sat down, leaning back against the trunk and striking his usual pose.

Elizabeth made a deep curtsy, sarcastically saying, "As you wish, Your Lordship."

She straightened and picked up Jaken by the tip of his pointy hat. "Come on Rin, we'll use Master Jaken as a practice subject."

"Try not to kill my retainer." Sesshoumaru calmly spoke, not really caring about Jaken's safety, as he watched the two women move a little farther away, making sure they had plenty of room.

_Author's Note: I don't own any Disney characters, either._

_Once again thanks to mishigohiku and I'llxBexUrxEnigma2010 for your latest reviews. Yeah . . . I had thought about making the scene a lemon, but decided against it. All in good time. Gotta try to have a little plot. _

_As far as this chapter goes . . . I don't know what I think of it. It was almost a complete rewrite from what I had originally. I was focusing on trying to work in and develop the other characters a little better. And I feel the whole squid demon thing was uninspired. _

_Also, sorry about the whole good/evil conversation. I was in a philosophical mood and its a theme that I find interesting. Partly inspired by the movie, _The Messenger,_ and by "Sympathy for the Devil" by the Rolling Stones. Hope it didn't bore anyone or seem like complete garbage. Perhaps I should not drink and write._

_Until next time ~~CW_


	8. Charmed, I'm Sure

_Author's Note: Once again, thanks to fallenfaeangel and especially I'llxBexUrxEnigma2010 and MeshiGohiku. You two are becoming my most regular reviewers. In answer to your question, who says there will be a wish on the jewel? Still working on it. And Rin is more of a catalyst to get Sesshoumaru and Elizabeth in the same vicinity without being at each other's throats. That . . . and she's just so cute I had to make sure she was in the story. You gotta love a little girl that tries to help an injured, cranky demon._

_Also, "Highway to Hell." Yeah, I know the song._

_This chapter is longer than most. It's to make up for the fact that a good bit of it is the telling of the story of Cupid and Psyche as a bedtime story. If you don't know the story and like mythology, enjoy. Otherwise, skipping that little bit will not take away from the rest of the chapter's plot._

_**Disclaimer**__: I don't own Inuyasha, Harry Potter, Mists of Avalon, or anything else. _

Inuyasha dropped to the floor next to Miroku, crossing his legs as he sat. He kept his eyes trained on the bowl of stew in his hands. He wasn't feeling hungry, for once. He cast a sidelong glance to Miroku, who was also unusually quiet. Neither had spoken since the incident at Goshinboku. What was there to say?

"You don't trust me. None of you do." The others sitting in the hut looked at Inuyasha from across the small fire.

"Of course we trust you." Sango replied, wondering where that had come from.

Inuyasha lifted his hand to the rosary around his neck, "No, you don't. And I don't blame you."

Kaede replied, "Inuyasha, if this is about the subjugation beads . . . that was for Kagome's protection long ago. We can remove them . . ."

"That's not what this is about," Miroku interrupted. "We trust you, Inuyasha."

Inuyasha shook his head, keeping his eyes locked on the cooling bowl of stew. "I saw the vision. Don't deny you were afraid. I _felt_ your fear."

"Fear, yes," Miroku's voice was impatient. "There was a lot to be afraid of at the moment . . . the demon, the bandits, the safety of the villagers, Sesshoumaru."

"And me."

"We feared that you would never be able to come back to your senses . . . that we would lose you to a monster."

"A monster that _is_ me."

"Fine! We were afraid of you. That doesn't mean we don't trust you. Do you think we would have put ourselves in Sesshoumaru's way, otherwise?"

As Inuyasha hesitated in his answer, Sango asked, "What is this about?"

Miroku released a sigh, "When Inuyasha transformed and killed those bandits. Elizabeth used my memories to show Inuyasha a vision of it. It was . . . a little unnerving."

"How did she do that?" Kaede asked.

"She didn't explain."

"But why would she do something like that?" Sango asked.

"Because to get something through Inuyasha's thick skull, you need to bash him over the head with a rock," Shippou suggested.

Miroku nodded to himself thoughtfully. That sounded right, "Was it a big enough rock, Inuyasha?"

The hanyou looked at Miroku, contemplating the metaphor. He looked down again. A resigned sigh, "Yeah. Tetsusaiga failed me once, it can fail me again. I shouldn't put all of my faith into it."

Miroku smiled putting on his best wise-monk expression, "Ahh, the pupil is ready to learn."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The hours passed without any catastrophes. Sesshoumaru remained silent during the magic lesson, studying the enigmatic woman as she taught his ward. Despite the tensions that had been between the two demons, she allowed herself to appear completely at ease. She did not give the daiyoukai a second glance during the entire lesson. Perhaps she was purposefully ignoring him, or she was so involved in teaching her new pupil that she did not care about his presence. When Rin would ask her questions about Elizabeth's homeland, Elizabeth seemed to be less-guarded than she normally was. Perhaps that was because she was speaking to a girl that she knew was not trying to cause her harm. But she must have also known that Sesshoumaru was listening. Maybe the little girl just didn't ask any questions that required her to be on guard.

Rin proved to be a fast learner and had been able to perform a number of simple spells that she would soon be able to master, with practice. Jaken did end up being a test subject for a couple of spells, but he had remained fairly unharmed throughout the process. At one point, some of his clothing had been set on fire, but that was an accident – a misdirected spell that was supposed to start a campfire, since it was beginning to get dark. Rin had learned how to petrify living things (although she hadn't quite mastered it), make the tip of the wand glow to help her see in the dark, and how to send red sparks into the air, like an emergency signal.

As it got dark, Rin seemed to be getting a little tired. Elizabeth decided to end the lesson, telling Rin that she could keep the wand and practice her magic, but that she needed to get some rest.

"A tired witch is no use to anyone." She said as she got up to leave.

"Wait, Elizabeth." Rin wrapped her arms around Elizabeth's hips. "Could you tell me a story from your land? I haven't heard a bedtime story in a long time. My mother used to tell me stories before she died."

"Perhaps Sesshoumaru or Jaken can tell one." Elizabeth was suddenly very tense, and Sesshoumaru did not fail to notice this.

"They don't know any happy stories. I bet you do."

"Oh . . . very well. Let me try to think of one." Elizabeth's mind was a blank as she sat back down. Rin climbed into her lap, not noticing or ignoring the tense expression on her face, and sat in Elizabeth's lap as if she were a chair, leaning against her chest like a backrest. Elizabeth was trying to think of a story when a wolf's howl broke through the night. Rin tensed, gripping Elizabeth's hand.

"What's wrong?"

"Wolves." Rin said quietly, her voice betraying her fear.

"Are you afraid of them?"

"Of course she is." Jaken cut in with his annoying voice, "she was once killed by wolves."

"You don't appear to be dead to me." Elizabeth directed her remark to Rin with a smile, not bothering to glance at the toad.

"That is because Lord Sesshoumaru brought her back to life," pride filled Jaken's voice as he spoke of his master's great power.

Elizabeth looked over to Sesshoumaru, not bothering to hide her surprise, "You have the power to resurrect the dead?"

"Yes. Don't you?" Sesshoumaru mentally smiled at the witch's surprise. Did he have one power the witch did not?

"No. I have never tried, though. It is not my place to play God." She added thoughtfully. "How ironic for you to have that ability." The conversation was interrupted with another loud howl and Rin tensed again.

Elizabeth tried to sooth her. "Now, now. They're not going to hurt you. You are perfectly safe."

"Are you not afraid of them?"

"No. And neither should you as long as you travel with one of their cousins." She motioned towards the inu-daiyoukai. "Wolves are great hunters, but they are also pathfinders and fierce protectors – the picture of unconditional loyalty. Look at my wolves." Elizabeth held up her arm, showing Rin the wolf torc bracelet. "I call them Romulus and Remus, although the real Romulus and Remus were humans."

"Who were Romulus and Remus?"

"Well, they exist more in legend. Their story isn't really long, nor is it exactly happy. They were twins, the sons of a priestess and the god of war, Mars. The priestess died and the twins were left to exposure. They would have died as well, except a mother wolf came across them and fed them, keeping them alive until they were discovered by a shepherd who took them in. Romulus later became the founder of the city of Rome, which grew into a great empire that covered much of the known world."

"What happened to Remus?"

"Sadly, Romulus killed him."

"Why?"

"Well, both brothers had decided that they were going to build cities. The area they chose had seven hills. Each of them chose a hill and began building the walls to their cities. Then, Remus decided to taunt his brother, making fun of his brother's work. Romulus became so enraged that he killed Remus on the spot, and continued building the wall over his brother's dead body."

"Just because he made fun of him?"

"Well, there may have been other reasons as well, but that silly bit of sibling rivalry pushed him into action. Let's not talk about that anymore – like I said, it's not a happy story. How about I tell you the story of Cupid and Psyche, instead?"

"Who are . . . Cupid and . . . Psyche?"

"They are beings from Greek and Roman myth. Before I can tell the story, I need to tell you a little background." Elizabeth stared into the fire and started to magically manipulate the flames, forming shapes to aid in the telling of her story. "You see, over a thousand years ago, when the city of Rome was at its height of power, the citizens worshiped many gods. There was a god or goddess for everything and these deities were arranged in a hierarchy. The mightiest of all was Jupiter, who was most known for wielding lightning bolts. He had a wife, Juno, with whom he did not have the best relationship – they were always fighting with each other. He had two brothers – Neptune, god of the sea, and Pluto, god of the underworld, the land of the dead. There are a number of other gods, including Mars, the god of war, Athena, the goddess of war and wisdom, and Apollo, the sun god, who daily drove his golden chariot across the sky, making the daylight come and go. Despite their divinity, the gods had a tendency to act just like humans – they had the same emotions and vices. This would usually cause problems for the poor mortals that got in their way.

"This story focuses on Venus, the goddess of love. She was the most beautiful of all goddesses – no one could resist her beauty and charm. She had a son . . . well, in this story, he is her son . . . he was Cupid, the god of love. He is usually pictured as a winged child that would blindly shoot arrows into the hearts of mortals and gods alike, making them feel love. But his true form was that of a fair young man – the fairest of all gods.

"So let's begin. There once was a king who had three daughters, all of them were lovely, but the youngest, Psyche, was by far the most beautiful – so beautiful that she seemed to be a goddess compared to her sisters. The fame of her beauty reached far and wide and men would come from all ends of the earth just to view her beauty and pay her homage as if she were a goddess. They would even say that Venus could not equal this mortal and as more and more people came to worship the girl's beauty, Venus' temples became neglected and her favorite cities fell to ruin. Needless to say, Venus became very jealous of this mortal and she had to do something to punish her.

"Her plan was to have her son, Cupid, pierce Psyche with an arrow and force her to fall in love with the lowliest of all humans. No doubt, Cupid would have carried out his mother's wish, if Venus had not shown him Psyche beforehand. Upon seeing Psyche's beauty, the god of love himself fell in love with the beautiful woman, and could not carry out the plan. Instead, Psyche did not fall in love at all, and no one fell in love with her. Every man who came to see her was content just to look at her and then went off to marry someone else. Even both of her sisters had married kings and were living splendidly.

"Her father, worried about Psyche's future, went to the oracle of Apollo to ask for advice. The god answered his question, but the answer was terrible. You see, Cupid had begged Apollo to help him, so the god told Psyche's father that she must be dressed for mourning and set on the summit of a rocky hill and left alone. There, her destined husband, a winged serpent, stronger than the gods themselves, would come to her and make her his wife. Psyche kept her courage when she learned this news. She felt that her beauty had brought down the jealousy of the gods and she was glad that an end was going to come.

"She waited on the hilltop alone, not knowing what terror would come her way. She wept as she waited when Zephyr, the most gentle of all the winds lifted her up and brought her down the cliff to a grassy meadow, full of fragrant flowers. She found herself next to a large mansion, stately and beautiful as though it had been built for a god."

"And it _had_ been built for a god?" Rin asked, very interested in the story, but clearly showing that she was close to dozing off.

"You'll find out. . . she entered the mansion, but it appeared to be deserted. As she crossed the threshold, she could hear voices, but could not see the sources. They told her that the house was for her and they told her to bathe and refresh herself and a banquet would be prepared for her. All through the day, she did not see a single soul, but could hear sweet music and voices the entire time. She had the feeling that her husband would come be with her when night fell. Of course, he was. She never saw him, but she could feel him by her side and hear him murmuring in her ear and she knew that this could not be the monster that the oracle said that she would marry."

"Cupid."

"Aye, it was Cupid, but Psyche did not know that. She never saw him in the light, she only felt him by her side at night. In fact, he had told her that if she ever tried to see him, he would have to leave her forever. One day, on the anniversary of her disappearance, Psyche's sisters came to the cliff to weep and mourn for their lost sister. Her husband had warned her the night before that they were coming and Psyche begged him to allow them to come see her. She had not seen a soul since she arrived and she could not bear the solitude. Her husband agreed, but warned her that she was bringing about her own downfall. The next day, Zephyr brought the two sisters down to the mansion.

"Psyche welcomed her sisters. Unfortunately, the sisters quickly became jealous of the riches in which their sister lived. When they left, they came up with a plan to ruin her. Psyche begged her husband to let her sisters visit again. He warned her that this would bring about her downfall, but still gave in to the woman he loved. On their next visit, the sisters put their plan into action. They tried to convince Psyche that her husband was indeed the monster that the oracle had prophesied. He may have been nice at the moment, but it was only a matter of time before he turned on her and devoured her. They pointed out how he never let her see him. There must be something wrong with the man if he didn't let her see him by the light of day. To be sure, the sisters suggested that Psyche should take a lamp and a knife to bed with her. When he fell asleep, she should light the lamp and stab him, saving herself from a terrible fate.

"Psyche was torn, wondering if her sisters were right, but also believing that she loved her husband. She could not kill him. But one thing was for sure, she wanted to see him. That night, when she was absolutely sure he was asleep, she lit a lamp and tiptoed to the bed, gazing at the sleeping form. She was relieved to see that there was no monster, but one of the fairest men in all of the world. She began to shake in shame because she had had no faith in her husband. Her shaking hands caused hot oil to fall from the lamp onto his shoulder. He immediately awakened, saw the light and knew her faithlessness, and he fled from her. As he flew away, she could hear his voice. He told her who he was and bade her farewell. 'Love cannot live where there is no trust,' he said as he flew away. She was shocked. The god of love had been her husband and she could not keep faith with him. She decided that she would spend the rest of her life searching for him. Even if he could no longer love her, she would prove to him that she still loved him."

At this point, Elizabeth stopped. Rin had fallen asleep, breathing steadily against her chest. Elizabeth gently removed the girl from her lap and laid her on the ground near the floor, turning a rock into a soft pillow for her head.

"Don't let this trouble you dreams." She said softly. "They found each other again and were never parted."

Rin seemed to understand her as she smiled in her sleep. Silently, she left the campsite, Sesshoumaru's gaze following her. Although he did not show it, he had been listening to the story carefully. Yes, it had been a bit of fluff of a love story. Just the kind of thing most little girls love to hear. Still, learning of the gods of other lands peaked his interest.

The story about the brothers had been interesting as well. He had noticed her sideways glance toward him when she had made that comment about sibling rivalry. Despite being concerned with calming Rin about the wolves, she could not resist a little jab at his expense. Her remark about irony popped into his head and he wondered what she meant by it.

When Elizabeth left without a word, he decided to follow her. This would be a chance for him to satisfy his curiosity. Besides, she seemed less opposed to be in his presence now. She had had ample opportunity to let a stray spell go his way. It could have been him set on fire. Yet she did nothing of the sort. Surely that meant her temper had cooled. Providing he did nothing to provoke her, he might be successful.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

As soon as she left the cozy atmosphere of Sesshoumaru's campsite, Elizabeth's gloomy mood returned. It was as if the little girl, Rin, was a little ray of sunshine. As soon as the witch left her presence, everything had gone dark again. Just a matter of hours, and she had gotten attached to the child. Not good. Not good at all. And what had possessed her to let the girl keep her wand when she had no intention of seeing the child again? There must be something about her. Well . . . of course there was. Why else would Sesshoumaru allow her to follow him about?

_As a matter of fact, _why_ does he let her follow him? _She wondered.

Elizabeth had returned to the river and followed it, lost in her thoughts. She came to an area where she could see rolling hills beyond the river. A slight mist was forming, rolling down the hills to the river. It reminded her so much of home. In a reflexive action, she lifted her arms straight out to her sides, at shoulder level. After a few moments, she lowered her hands, causing the mist to move with her motion. The island that she was thinking of did not appear. _Of course it wouldn't._ She longed to see that place again, bittersweet as it would be to return. She longed to be in England again, but it was not yet time to return. She could be there in a matter of moments – just for a visit. But if she did go, she wasn't sure if she could muster the strength to leave.

She sank to her knees on the edge of the river, lost in the memories of happier days – when she had known love and did not fear retribution for her crimes. So lost in her thoughts, she almost thought she saw _his_ image, remembering his long, white hair as an older man. However, she knew it was Sesshoumaru. For some reason, he had followed her and was standing near the edge of the river, his image reflected in the water. He said nothing to her and she continued to study his image in the water. She admired the handsome image as she wondered what he wanted with her now.

The silence stretched on and the daiyoukai could feel the melancholy radiating from the kneeling witch. Not a mood that suited her. "It seems you are careless to allow me to catch you unawares so often."

"Perhaps I do not consider you enough of a threat to be on the defense." Her comment was snide and showed a little of her normal fire, but it soon dwindled. "Please go away, I would like to be left alone." She got up and moved to sit near a tree.

Sesshoumaru walked over to her, ignoring her request. She lifted her head and watched him as he sat down, across from her so that he could study her face. In the dim light, he could see that she had set her face in an emotionless mask but her eyes showed the slightest hint of sadness. He tucked his hands in his sleeves, waiting for her to acknowledge him.

"What do you want?" She hissed with frustration after a long silence had passed.

"You did not finish the story."

"Rin fell asleep. She knows it had a happy ending."

"She may want details and pester me over it."

"To think a little, human girl has you wrapped about her finger." She sighed, looking back over the water. "Venus appeared to Psyche and offered to help her, provided she could pass several trials. Psyche agreed without hesitation. For as anyone would know, love does not come without trial. She did not know that Venus had designed the tests to be nearly impossible to complete. Venus had no intention of allowing Psyche to win back her son's heart. Through the mercy of other gods and the very creatures of the earth who helped her, Psyche was able to pass all tests. Her struggle came to Cupid's attention and he returned to her. He took her to Mount Olympus, home of the gods, and requested that she become immortal, like himself. The gods agreed and gave her ambrosia, which would make her immortal. Forever after, Cupid and Psyche, love and the soul, were together . . . as it should be."

She was quiet for a few moments as she thought about the story. It used to be one of her favorites, despite it not being one of the actual myths involving the gods. It used to give her hope that she and Merlin would be reunited one day. Coming out of her thoughts, she noticed that Sesshoumaru was still there.

"What purpose have you, really?"

"Merely to give you the pleasure of my company in return for teaching my ward." He answered with a minimal shrug.

_There is only one _thing _of your company that would give me pleasure, and you are too selfish to share it. _She thought petulantly, keeping that comment to herself. She had vowed she would not pursue unwilling males.

"I daresay that was an aim at charm. You fall quite short."

"Then we are evenly matched for our lack of charm."

Taking on a lofty air, Elizabeth replied, "Good Sir, I can charm the birds from the trees and the stars from the skies. But I have no need to waste such skills on you."

"Why don't you fear me?" Enough of the niceties.

"Why should I?" Came the cool reply.

"Most humans and demons have the sense to fear me. They know I can kill them and will not hesitate to do so."

"Even Rin?"

"Rin knows my power and she shows the proper respect. Don't avoid the question."

Elizabeth looked up at the sky, looking at the stars scattered across the dark backdrop. "I have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night."

Sesshoumaru was slightly irritated at the poetic response, not entirely sure what she meant by it. "You do not fear death?"

"Everything that lives must die. It is part of the cycle of life, so it should not be feared. I have lived long enough."

"1200 years."

"Give or take a decade." Elizabeth gave Sesshoumaru a questioning look. _When did I tell him my age?_

"Inuyasha's woman told me about your kind and about you."

"So why are you pestering me with questions?"

"Because she could not tell me everything I wanted to know."

"She told you everything that I am willing to tell. I should think that someone like you could respect that."

"What do you mean?"

"You keep yourself just as guarded as I do. Except, while I put on a cheerful face and can actually be pleasant company, you put on a scowl and terrify everyone while you bury your emotions under a layer of ice. Either way, we manage to keep others at an emotional distance, protecting ourselves from the pain of . . . getting too attached. Of course you have that ability to bring back the dead . . . ironic as it may be." She hoped this would shut him up or make him leave.

There it was again – that statement about irony. "Why do you think it is ironic?"

"'The killing perfection.' You don't find it ironic that you have the power to bring back the dead?"

Sesshoumaru had never considered this. It wasn't really worth considering.

"Why are you named Sesshoumaru, anyways?" Elizabeth broke into his thoughts. "Did your mother die when you were born?" It was a rather blunt question, but why be anything else with this youkai?

"What?"

"I am trying to understand why a parent would give a child such a name. Was it to be a name worthy of a great warrior? Was it given due to the preordained knowledge of a bloody and violent future? Or was it a name that a heartbroken father might give the child, whose birth resulted in the death of the mother, taking it as an omen of the child's bloody future?" She began to get a distant look in her eyes, as if her mind had traveled far away to contemplate the philosophy of choosing children's names.

"You tend to go for the over-dramatic. My mother still lives." He replied noncommittally.

"Does she? Then that rules out one explanation, but does not explain why you are how you are today – outwardly so cold, yet hidden deep are emotions that are barely even shown to the young human girl that follows you. Why do you let her follow you?"

Sesshoumaru showed no reaction to her statements, but he was surprised and uncomfortable. She was too insightful, despite his ability to hide his emotions. He did not like the direction this discussion was taking and deflected the question.

"Have you joined Inuyasha's group to fight Naraku?"

"Who? Oh . . . Naraku. No, I have no business fighting him. He has done nothing to me."

"Then what is your business with Inuyasha? Are you not training him so that he can better fight Naraku?"

"I suppose that will be one result, but that is not my objective."

"Elaborate for once." Sesshoumaru was beginning to lose patience with the woman's carefully-chosen responses. Oh she talked a good deal, but she had a tendency to answer questions without answering them.

Elizabeth removed her gaze from the sky and focused on Sesshoumaru's golden eyes. _Why am I tolerating his presence? Maybe I feel the need to unburden my soul a little? Lord Killing Perfection here wouldn't bat an eye at at the stories I could tell._

"I believe I already told you once – I am trying to help Inuyasha gain control over his demon side. I want him to be able to use his own will power and not be dependent on a sword to seal his demonic power. I want him to be able to use his full power, without losing himself to it."

"Why does it concern you?"

"Because I don't want Inuyasha to have the same experiences as I." Elizabeth continued before Sesshoumaru asked another question, and she knew he would. "Do you remember when Inuyasha transformed while protecting a village from bandits – you appeared just at the right moment? Inuyasha might have turned on the villagers next if not for your convenient arrival."

The way she spoke of it, she may as well have been there, "I remember. Most likely he would have."

"I don't know what your purpose was, but I am sure Inuyasha will always be grateful that you stopped him. Although, the damage had already been done. The others told me how, even after Inuyasha had returned to normal, the villagers feared him. Inuyasha didn't say how he felt about that, but he didn't have to. I know how he felt."

"Because you lost control once?" He made the question sound like a statement – he already knew the answer. However, he could not quite imagine this woman losing control of herself in the manner she was suggesting. Not after the fights they had had where she showed such strength and restraint. He had to admit that her control rivaled his own.

"I did not lose control quite in the way that Inuyasha did. There was a time when I attacked any village I came across, without provocation, killing men, women and children. I was fully aware of what I was doing, but I did not want to stop. The feeling of power was too great; or the thrill of the horror I caused was too alluring. To this day, there are some villages where people are afraid to go out at night and they cling desperately to crucifixes and garlic to protect them."

She let out a humorless chuckle at the thought. As if such things ever stopped her, "I don't like to tell people about this part of my past – not as an attempt to pretend it never happened, but because I don't want to see the horror in their faces when they realize that I was that bloodthirsty monster in the stories. Rarely, I tell people that I am a vampire – that immediately makes them tense."

Elizabeth felt that she had shared more than she intended and more than Sesshoumaru wanted to know, so she was slightly surprised when he asked another question. "Why do you care if weak humans fear you?"

She stood up and walked to the edge of the river, listening to the sounds of the night while staring at the stars.

"It is not just their fear. It is mostly the guilt of my sins coming back to me. I don't know why I am compelled to tell you all of this. Maybe because you remind me of myself, in those days. Maybe because I know you are not likely to relay this story to anyone else. As if you're a priest – a confessor." She gave a slight smile and crossing herself, she bowed her head in prayer. "Forgive me Father, for I have sinned. In my thoughts and in my words. In what I have done and what I have failed to do. I ask the forgiveness of the angels and saints." She spoke these words in Latin, so Sesshoumaru had no idea what she had just said.

She looked back up at the sky, "They will not forgive me. Not yet. Maybe not ever. I may not be a cold-blooded killer anymore, but I am far from living the life of a saint." Then she added with a smile, feeling herself lift out of her depressing mood. "I suppose I cannot be expected to change all of my spots, nor would I want to."

Sesshoumaru had stood as well and was staring at the woman, feeling slight confusion and disbelief. How could this woman have done what she claimed? She would have to have been even more cold-hearted than he was, or just deranged. But the woman standing before him was neither. She was warm-hearted, showing kindness to others, not concerned if it made her appear weak. If anyone thought that she was weak, she could prove them wrong – he had learned that the hard way. She did not enjoy killing, well, anything – not even the pigs whose blood she drank. She could not possibly have done what she claimed. People don't change that much, no matter how much time passes.

Elizabeth felt his gaze focused on her and turned to look at him, deciding it was time to move away from these depressing thoughts. "You know you owe me now. I've told you about myself. Sooner or later, you'll have to repay the favor." The taunting tone in her voice was returning.

Apparently her mood was changing and Sesshoumaru was going to respond with a derisive remark when a woman's scream filled the air. It was a good distance away, but it was loud and clear to them. Both demons' heads snapped in the direction of the scream. Elizabeth took off at great speed towards the source. Sesshoumaru followed, but only to see what was going to happen. They arrived at the same time at a clearing where they saw three men and a woman. The woman was on the ground, held down by two of the men. The third leaned over her, covering her mouth with his hand and tearing at her clothing with the other. The sight made Elizabeth's blood boil and she quickly decided on a course of action. Sesshoumaru stayed in the shadows to observe the scene without being noticed by the humans.

"Good evening, _gentlemen_." She spoke loudly in English, knowing that they could not understand her. Her purpose was to get their attention.

The three men stopped to look in her direction as she stepped into the clearing. She continued speaking to them, this time in Japanese. "I believe when a woman screams like that, it means she is not willing."

"She just doesn't know that she will enjoy it." Sneered one of the men.

"I think you should let her go and find a willing woman," her voice reflected none of the rage she felt for the men, as she phrased her words perfectly to get the response she wanted.

"Are you offering to take her place?" the same man asked, eying Elizabeth with a lustful stare. His gaze fell to her chest. The clasp of her cloak was unfastened, revealing her seductive curves, but still hid the hilt of the large blade at her side. _Just what I wanted you to say. Men are so easy_.

"Do you think you three are man enough to satisfy me?" She said seductively with a slightly wicked smile. She started to walk toward the group. The man, who appeared to be the leader of the group, stood as she approached and took a few steps away from the woman on the ground. His eyes were fastened on her deep blue eyes as she got closer. She could see excitement in his eyes as she was sure he was imagining what was to ensue.

She stood mere inches from him and leaned in, bringing her mouth close to his ear, while placing a hand on his chest. "Shall we find out?" she breathed into his ear and then moved to place a hot kiss on his lips. As the man began to kiss her back, he grabbed at her body. Elizabeth ran her hand down his chest, heading toward the direction of his groin. She could feel the man's arousal through his clothing and toyed with it for a few moments. She opened her eyes as she heard the man moan in response to the touch.

Sesshoumaru had been watching this scene with slight interest, mixed with extreme disgust. Why was she kissing this filthy human and touching him like that? He tensed as he heard the man moan in pleasure. He knew that she was a woman who acted on her lustful desires, but did that mean that she went after every male she saw? Then again there was no reason for him to care about whom this woman chose to bed – she was not his property to control. She was absolutely nothing to him other than a worthy opponent. For some unexplained reason, the memories of when Elizabeth had kissed him came back. Might he have moaned in pleasure if he had not been so shocked and angry? Had the situation been different, what might have happened?

Sesshoumaru pushed the questions out of his head. Nothing would have happened. He would not have let himself show such weakness. When he saw Elizabeth's next move, he determined that he was right to not allow her seductions to affect him.

She pulled her mouth away slightly as she suddenly dug her claws into the man's member, tearing into the flesh just enough to cause extreme discomfort, but no major injury. The man let out a cry of pain and appeared to want to fall to the ground, but Elizabeth kept him standing. Sesshoumaru felt his own body cringing in sympathy – universal reaction from seeing another male in such pain. Mentally, he thanked the gods for the strategic design of his armor.

"What's the matter? Don't you like it rough?" she asked with a wicked gleam in her eye.

"You bitch! Let him go!" One of the other men yelled as the two started toward her, forgetting the woman lying on the ground. Sesshoumaru almost moved to stop them, but froze when he saw Elizabeth lift her free hand in their direction.

"One at a time, boys." She said, without bothering to look in their direction. The two men fell to the ground, writhing and screaming in pain, but Sesshoumaru could not see what was causing the pain.

After a few moments, Elizabeth lowered her hand and the men stopped writhing, but remained on the ground, breathing heavily. She dragged the other man over to his friends and released her grasp on his member, allowing him to fall on the ground. She then knelt down and with a wave of her hand, forced all three men to look directly at her. She saw fear and pain in their eyes. Good.

"Death is too good for you three, so I will not kill you. Although, maybe later you will wish that I had. But I am going to let you go with this lesson learned – women are not your personal playthings. Anytime you get the idea that they are, I want you to remember this night. I want you to remember me. Above all, I want you to remember the pain. You shall never be able to enjoy a woman ever again. You shall never harm a woman out of anger. If you try, the pain will return tenfold. You did this to yourselves, you have only yourselves to blame. Now leave my sight and pray that we never meet again." She hissed this last sentence and the men moved as fast as they could to get away, wincing and stumbling due to the pain that had not completely receded.

Unfortunately, they ran in the direction of Sesshoumaru and received an additional fright as he stepped out of the shadows. They screamed in fear and continued to run, hoping the demon would leave them alone. Sesshoumaru had no intention of chasing the filth. He was busy watching the witch, who had briefly glanced in the direction of the men's screams, but was now comforting the poor woman. _So the miko was right; she uses seduction as a weapon. Why not simply attack them? That was a rather underhanded tactic for someone who claims that she does not behave as such._

She helped the woman up to a sitting position and wrapped her cloak around her, covering up her torn clothing. The woman was sobbing hysterically into Elizabeth's shoulder as the witch slowly stroked her hair, making soothing sounds to calm the woman. After some moments, the woman raised her head from Elizabeth's shoulder, but nearly went into another fit of hysteria when she looked up and saw the daiyoukai.

Elizabeth strengthened her hold on the woman, "shh . . . you don't need to worry about him. He's not here to hurt you. He's a harmless puppy." Sesshoumaru's eyes narrowed at this remark. The woman sobbed a little more, but calmed down.

"Now tell me, how did you end up out here in this situation?"

"My hut on the edge of my village. I was outside, getting more firewood. Those men grabbed me and dragged me out here so no one could here me screaming."

"Did you know them?"

"No, they were not from the village."

"That's good. Can you walk? I'll take you back to your village. I'm sure everyone is worried about you by now." Elizabeth stood and helped the woman up. Elizabeth put her right arm around the woman's waist and placed the woman's left arm around her shoulders in order to support her while they walked.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Elizabeth and Sesshoumaru were alone together once again, walking through the woods towards the place where they had been before the interruption. Elizabeth had taken the woman to her village and Sesshoumaru had followed without explaining his reasons. The woman's parents were exceedingly grateful and offered Elizabeth, and hesitantly Sesshoumaru (as he had entered the village as well, making the villagers quite nervous), their hospitality – a place to stay for the night. Elizabeth graciously declined the offer, but did accept some tea as the family insisted they be allowed this one show of gratitude. Also, it would serve to wash the taste of that human out of her mouth, although she really wanted a bath to wash off his scent completely.

Sesshoumaru did not fail to notice the witch swishing the tea around in her mouth and guessed that she had found the experience to her dislike. They had been walking for some time in silence until he decided to ask the question that had been running through his mind. "If you dislike the taste of that human so much, why did you kiss and fondle him? Why not simply fight them?"

Elizabeth replied with mischievous smile, "Now what would be the fun in that? Did you see the look in his eyes when he thought I was going to lay with him? And then the complete shock when he realized the trap he had fallen into? It's almost intoxicating. Of course, if he hadn't been thinking with the lower part of his body, he might have found it suspicious that a seemingly human woman was wandering the woods in the middle of the night. Not to mention, if they had noticed your presence in the first place, it would have ruined all of the fun."

There in a nutshell was the whole reason Sesshoumaru did not waste his time with women. The distractions they caused. What kind of warrior would he be if he was always thinking of women? He could just as easily end up as those men, caught in the most inconvenient of moments, and the most vulnerable positions. And that's not even considering what a devious bedmate might do to him if his guard is down.

"So the miko was right. You use seduction as a weapon. How . . . underhanded."

Elizabeth glanced at him from the corner of her eye and replayed the whole scene through her head. She bowed her head, "You're right. I shouldn't have done that."

"That is not what I said."

"It matters not. I shouldn't have done that. It was underhanded, but at the time . . . the bastard had it coming, and there was no better form of justice than that. They brought it on themselves."

"This wouldn't be the first time I witnessed such tactics. At least I was not on the receiving end this time."

"I never did such things to you."

"I might point out our first battle."

"I recall you came out of that with an arm, and I with nothing but an unresponsive kiss for my troubles." She changed direction, not having meant to speak that last bit aloud. "I don't regret cursing them with impotence, but I should not have tortured them."

"Impotence?" Now, Sesshoumaru may not indulge in pleasures of the flesh, as was quite clear. Still, he understood the importance of a male being able to stand to when the need called for it. He had learned that at a young age. It was as if it was connected to masculinity. No true, strong male would have difficulties with such things. She had emasculated them. "Oh, you are a cruel woman."

"Men and their pricks. Of course, feel sympathy for them – the rapists."

"Why do you care if some human woman gets raped?"

She suddenly grabbed his arm, forcibly turned him to face her and looked him directly into his golden orbs, anger flashing through her own blue ones. She had a piercing gaze, not unlike his own, that seemed to be reaching into his soul. "Women are not possessions for men to use in any way they wish – at least they shouldn't be! I will not stand by, watching any woman get injured like that while I have the power to stop it! You know what would have happened if I had not gotten there in time? That poor woman, knowing this society, would have been blamed for something that she could not control. She dressed no more alluring than any other woman. She did not even know those men. She just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. And yet, I _guarantee_ you that she would have been blamed for being raped! She would have been shunned, called a whore, and her life would have been ruined. Especially if a child had been born on top of it all! That is, unless those men were merciful enough to kill her when they were done."

Suddenly her expression changed, as if she had surprised herself with this outburst. Distractedly, she let go of Sesshoumaru's arm and walked away, leaving him to digest what she had just said.

Sesshoumaru nearly let a look of surprise pass his features at this outburst. Apparently this was a close subject for her, but why? Surely not because she had ever been raped – she was too powerful to let that happen. Was it something else? After some moments, he followed Elizabeth and found her at the same clearing they had been in earlier. She was at the water's edge, waving her hands over it, making a circle of stone rise out of the water.

"Why does this subject anger you so?"

"I have my reasons that are none of your business, so there is no reason why you should care."

True, Sesshoumaru shouldn't care, but his curiosity was not going to let him rest until he got an answer. "Answer me." He spoke so forcefully that the witch turned to face him.

A slight hint of anger reflected in her eyes. "It's called empathy, being able to imagine what it's like to be in another person's position – to understand what that person is feeling, physically and emotionally."

"Emotions are for the weak."

"Emotions are for those who are strong enough to bear the burden of showing them. Would yo say such a thing if it had been Rin in that woman's place?" She raised her voice slightly, her eyes piercing into his. A knot formed in the pit of his stomach at the thought of Rin. He pushed it to the back of his mind and kept to the topic.

"You can imagine what it's like to be raped?"

"What woman can't?"

"You shouldn't be able to. Who could be powerful enough to overcome you?"

She turned away, returning to the job of creating a bath, not wanting to reply to the question. _That's not the point_.

Sesshoumaru stared at her, her silence speaking more than her words had. "Who _was_ powerful enough to overcome you?"

She gave a defeated sigh. He wasn't going to let this alone. Still, she didn't want to give full answers, and she was sure he did not really desire to hear them. "It doesn't matter." Then she added in a dark tone, "He's dead now." She turned to face him again, with a wicked smile on her face.

"Who was it?"

She let out a sigh and crossed her arms and began speaking about her painful memories while putting on the impression that they had just been a minor burden in her early life. "My husband, or mate, as I suppose you youkai call them."

"How can your mate rape you? You belonged to him."

"Aye, that's it, isn't it? Because I _belonged_ to him, it wouldn't be called rape if he took me whenever the hell he chose to – not that he had much interest after a while. Then he simply beat me regularly. Even then, because I was nothing more than a possession, nothing would be done to stop him – he had every right in the eyes of society." Anger began to seethe in her voice – she made no attempt to hide it. How she hated being viewed as a possession. Then she tried to go back to her previous demeanor as she answered further questions.

"Were you disobedient?"

Elizabeth said sarcastically. "Aye. I was too stubborn to bear him a child."

Sesshoumaru replied with nothing but a questioning look. "He wanted a child – an heir that would be a blood bond between him and my very powerful, magical family. Naturally, he was not happy when I did not conceive and he punished me for the limitations of my body. As if it was something that I could control."

"Why did you allow yourself to be treated so?"

"I was young and a fool. I felt I had a duty to my family to marry whomever they saw fit – every woman is raised to believe that – and my brother was the one who did the choosing. My magical powers had not been nearly as developed as they are now. At the time, I had no idea of the kind of monster that I really am."

She locked her gaze on his eyes and gave a wicked, satisfied smile. "But I soon learned what kind of monster I am, and so did they. I told you I killed my brother. My husband was the first to die."

As she mentally reflected on the images of her killing the two men that had treated her so cruelly, she got a gleam in her eye and her mood began to improve. She had enjoyed killing them and she would never feel remorse for their deaths. The look in her eyes betrayed to Sesshoumaru an emotion that sent a chill down his spine – he had just gotten a glimpse of the killer that she had claimed herself to be. The look in her eyes had him so caught up that he almost missed what she had said. _So her problem is about being a possession, being used?_ _Yet, she uses men, does she not?_

"You do realize that you treat males as objects as well." He questioned the wisdom of making this statement.

"No more so than they do me." She said without emotion then added thoughtfully. "But I have always respected the men I have been with – I do not lay with just any man. And I have never forced myself on a man. I do not go after holy men or men that already love or are devoted to another woman. Above all, I respect the wishes of men who d are not interested for one reason or another."

"What reasons might those be?"

"In my experience, usually it is because they do not prefer women. _You_ are better able to provide the reasons."

He made no comment, but Elizabeth could see the questioning look in his eyes and explained. "Have you not noticed that I have been on my best behavior since I first kissed you? Your response to that kiss told me you weren't interested. Why?"

"Do you expect me to have wanted you when you held a sword to my throat?"

She shrugged, "Some males like that."

He opened his mouth to ask, but decided he didn't want to know, "I don't. Women are too much of a distraction for a warrior."

"What are a you, a Templar Night?" She waved her hand, dismissing the idea, "Whatever your reasons, I am respecting your wishes. Although you don't make it easy on me."

"What do you mean?"

"You continue to follow me about. Despite the fact that you keep trying to start fights with me, I still find you incredibly attractive. If anything, your fighting skills make me want you more. But I restrain myself. I was even so kind as to practice some decorum when you walked in on me during my bath. Or do you think I am so modest that I won't leave a bath naked while a man is in my presence?" She made these remarks in a matter-of-fact way.

Sesshoumaru almost scoffed at this remark. This woman was anything but modest. If she was, she would have thrown a fit over him showing up at that moment. But, he recalled that she really had made a point of preventing him from seeing her fully naked form. Why was he following her so much anyways? He wanted to find out her weakness. He wanted to be able to defeat her, totally. Or were there other reasons?

"I'm sure you think I am a brazen woman for speaking my lustful thoughts so openly. But I am far too old to play the part of a maiden who blushes at the slightest bit of skin contact. I know my mind and my desires and have no qualms about expressing them. Honesty is always best, in my opinion." _Especially if it can make a certain youkai so uncomfortable that he leaves me in peace_. "Speaking of baths, I would like to take another one, so if you don't mind . . . leave." She turned and went back to the water, finishing her work to draw her warm bath.

"I'll leave when I so choose."

"Fine, but don't expect me to be so modest anymore. If your proprieties are offended, it is your own fault." While keeping her back to him, she stripped off her cloak, draping it over a nearby rock, followed with her sword belt. She sat on the rock to remove her boots. She stood again to loosen her bodice. She let the gown slide to the ground, leaving only the leggings and undershirt to remove. She could still feel Sesshoumaru's gaze drilling into her back and she smirked to herself. _Trying to be _stubborn. Without hesitation, she pulled her shirt over her head.

As her hair was pulled up with her shirt and her arms were stretched above her head, Sesshoumaru could see the silhouette of her perfectly-shaped form and even a partial outline of her full breasts. Even Sesshoumaru could not be immune to the effects such a sight would have on any man. However, he was more than capable of controlling himself. It would not do to give in to every lustful thought that entered one's mind, especially when they involved a half-breed woman who showed no shame in having known many men.

_She's as old as my grandmother. My _dead_ grandmother. _He repeated in his mind.

As her hair fell back down, reaching down to her lower back, Sesshoumaru snapped out of his thoughts. Without a sound, he turned and left the clearing. He proved his point that she could not seduce him, if that was her intention. That and she could not embarrass him.

Elizabeth felt his presence retreating behind her and smiled. _Do I finally get a moment's peace to myself? _She gracefully removed her leather leggings and moved into the water, completely submerging herself for a few moments. When she re-emerged, she leaned back against the edge of the pool. Sitting alone with her thoughts again, she was still in a pleasant mood.

She smirked to herself. _I guess his company was pleasurable, afterall._

_Author's Note 2: "I have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night"_

_~The last line of "The Old Astronomer to His Pupil" by Sarah Williams._

_Not one of my favorite chapters. I think it might be the lop-sided conversation. Then again, Sesshoumaru is never a big talker. I plan to get his character to open up a bit more. But let's face it, he wouldn't be Sesshoumaru if he wasn't the strong, silent type._


End file.
